A Neoclassical pendulum bracket clock
Mahogany, glass, brass, white enamel dial, cast metal. With mechanisms to change the date and melodies, and switch off the striking. 14-hour musical striking to 12 bells. Rectangular case with four glazed windows, the front arched. Two fluted pilasters to the front, the staggered architrave surmounted by a pierced gallery and a base for an urn. Engraved signature "John Jardin London" to the bezel. The enamel restored. H 61.5, W 42, D 27.5 cm.
The case attributed to David Roentgen, Neuwied, ca. 1780; the movement John Jardin, London.
Alongside furniture, the Roentgen manufactory in Neuwied also produced clock cases. These not only included large grandfather clocks with opulent cases and movements by makers such as Kinzig, but also smaller clocks to be placed on mantlepieces or cabinets. It was previously not known that the studio also made cases for English clock movements.
The work displays stylistic parallels to a series of very similar items of furniture and clocks. The portal motif with two pilasters framing an arc can be found in a desk in Wilhelmshöhe palace near Kassel and a clock in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. There are also a number of highly comparable pieces to be found in the depot of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Provenance
Rhenish collection, sold in Lempertz auction 902, lot 652, 18th May 2007.
Literature
This clockmaker in: Baillie, London 1966, p. 170.
For this type of clock cf.: Fabian, Roentgen Möbel aus Neuwied, Bad Neustadt, 1986, p. 215ff.
Cf.: Stiegel, Präzision und Hingabe, Berlin, 2007, cat. no. 27.
A similar clock in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum, New York, Accession Number: 2002.237.