Skip to main content

Mantel Clock

Maker (French, active from 1756 to the present)
ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS
Date1800-1810
MediumMarble, gilt bronze, porcelain, enamel, glass, brass.
Dimensions21 in. (53.3 cm.)
DescriptionThe clock's pedestal is supported by two sphinxes. The pedestal is decorated with two medallions and gilt bronze mounts. The clock itself is mounted on a second pedestal which has a low-relief frieze running around the entire base. At the top of the clock is a putto in a chariot, pulled by a bird. On either side of the clock are paired biscuit figures of a woman and a putto.
SignedPhilibert/Pont St. Michel A Paris painted on dial, gg 19 7 painted on back of dial.
InscribedThe biscuit groups are inscribed "La lecon a l'amour" and "La lecon de l'amour."
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Label TextThe theme of this clock seems to be the various activities of Amour (Love), or Cupid, who appears in the Sèvres biscuit porcelain figures, both giving and receiving lessons of love. Stock porcelain figures such as these were typical decoration for clocks. In fact, the Huntington collection includes another early 19th-century French clock, given to the museum in the late 1970s, with the same figures.
Status
On view
Object number10.107
Mantel Clock
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
ca. 1806-1810
Object number: 78.20.75
Photography © 2015 Fredrik Nilsen
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
1782-1783
Object number: 27.110
Mantel Clock
Joseph Léonard Roque
ca. 1780
Object number: 27.102
Mantel Clock
Japy Freres & Cie
ca. 1785 and later
Object number: 27.182
Clock
Louis Montjoye I
1770-1780
Object number: 27.113
Mantel Clock
1781
Object number: 78.20.74
Mantel Clock
ca. 1775
Object number: 16.9
Portrait Medallion of Benjamin Franklin
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
ca. 1778-1800
Object number: 61.2
Mounted Vase
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
ca. 1770-1775
Object number: 13.19
Mounted Vase
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
ca. 1770-1775
Object number: 13.20
Photography © 2015 Fredrik Nilsen
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
1781
Object number: 27.34
Lidded Vase
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
ca. 1762
Object number: 27.27