Clock Set. Porcelain And Gilt Bronze. France, 19th Century.

Garniture with clock and candlesticks in porcelain and gilt bronze. France, 19th century. Mechanism in perfect working order. Garniture composed of a clock and two five-light candelabra, the three pieces being made from a combination of gilt bronze, with relief elements and rounded and cold-chased details, and porcelain decorated with low-temperature enamels, including gilt enamels. The porcelain pieces are inspired by the 18th century Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, with large pictorial cartouches on a cobalt blue background decorated with gilded plant motifs. The ensemble follows a historicist design that combines Baroque and neoclassical elements with Rococo-inspired enameled scenes, depicting landscapes and mythological scenes alluding to the arts and the goddess Venus. The clock movement is stamped “Chles. MT”, serial number 17420. The main enameled porcelain plates are signed by DP Boncher. The clock follows an architectural structure, with an oval base with a prominent front on the ground plane, resting on four cast spinning top feet, on which stands a large ornamental vase. This base is surmounted by a differentiated pinto and, above, a main body on the front, with a circular pediment that houses the clock face. This comprises black enamelled Roman numerals on white medallions with a gold border, arranged around the central representation of a small cupid lying among the clouds, holding a floral garland and accompanied by musical instruments. Between the medallions that house the numerals, a small jewelled decoration evoking pearls and inlaid rubies is repeated in the secondary areas of the body of the piece and the vase, always associated with delicate gold filigree. On either side of the dial, two female portraits of 18th century ladies are presented in oval frames. Below, a classically inspired scene with a muse holding musical instruments, probably Euterpe or Erato, accompanied by a little cupid reading a score. On the sides of the body of the clock, two large curved rectangular plates house very pictorial enamelled landscapes, worked with the same miniaturist precision as the rest of the enamelled cartouches. These are landscapes of romantic heritage, always inspired by the 18th century, with ideal decorations with a twilight atmosphere, featuring classical ruins. The vase located at the top of the body of the clock has a hemispherical bowl with fluted shoulders, an openwork truncated neck that opens gently towards the shoulders and a domed lid, also openwork. The handles are figurative, in bronze, with two crowns of feminine flowers, clearly inspired by Greco-Latin art, worked in rounded shapes. Within the bowl, the vase houses two enamelled porcelain cartouches, one on the front with two small love birds and a dove - a symbolic allusion to Venus - and the other on the back with musical instruments. The design of the clock is completed by two thick S-shaped bronze vegetal mouldings below the vase, as well as counter-mouldings and vegetal motifs cast in relief and cold-chased in a combination of matt and polished finishes. The candlesticks follow a similar design, with large vases of neoclassical design on pedestals, in this case cylindrical, resting on four low turned feet. The bases house porcelain cartouches depicting scenes of young ladies linked to the arts, one showing two young ladies practicing painting, the other two in a scene linked to classical lyric poetry, with a putto writing while the other, holding a lyre, raises a laurel wreath above his head. The cartouches on the front of the candlestick vases show scenes of Venus and Cupid in ideal landscapes, one of them against a backdrop of classical ruins. As with the clock, the candlestick vases feature figurative bronze handles, here with rams' heads. The body of the lamps of both pieces comprises four bronze arms with vegetalized rotating stones, topped with cylindrical porcelain lighters, the fifth lighter standing out and crowning the central axis. - Dimensions: Clock: 42x60x65 cm. Candlesticks: 20x20x62.5 cm.