Description

A rare and genuine antique French Gilt-Bronze and Champleve Enamel Clock, Circa 1900; Case: Of four-glass form, embellished on the front and sides with panels of polychrome enamel on a turquoise ground, its form inspired by the classic architecture displayed in the porticos of ancient Greece and Rome, onyx base, surmounted by a twin handled urn and six finials, 8.25 cm (3 1/4 ") enamel dial with a surround decorated champleve enamel (retailers name on the dial mostly wiped off), mercury pendulum, approx. 42 cm (16 1/2") high; Movement: circular plated movement stamped C.H. Paris A1, marked MADE IN FRANCE and # 2695 4.4, 8-day time and half-hour strike on a coiled gong, 19th/20th Century, exported during the late Qing Dynasty; Provenance: a private collector that is/was a NAWCC (National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, Inc.) member; Chan Collection, Toronto

Remarks: The turquoise champleve enamel indicates that the clock was made for the Chinese market during the early 1900's.

French clocks of this design are rare. A very similar clock is in the Imperial Clock Collection of the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City of Beijing; similar to Imperial Chinese clocks featured in a book on clocks of the imperial collection (pp. 205); book not included