Lot 590

Attributed to Jean-Joseph de Saint Germain, Paris, Height 540 mm, circa 1760
A particularly rare Louis XV ornamental bronze pendulum clock au Sanglier of supreme quality, with quarter hour/hour self strike. The combination of gilt and patinated bronze is striking and very unusual for the time. The movement has a rack strike on the rear side and was probably made in West Switzerland.
Case: firegilt and patinated bronze. Naturalistic representation of a wild boar, patinated bronze. The boar carries the barrel-shaped clock on his back; the clock is decorated with volutes, acanthus and garlands of oak and a flaming vase finial. Cambered rococo-style base. Dial: enamel. Movm.: circular brass full plate movement, 2 barrels, 2 hammers / 2 bells, on reverse side fine matted applied rack strike levers, count wheel, silk suspended short pendulum.
Due to the choice of style elements and the outstanding quality of the animal sculpture, the piece can be attributed to the famous bronze artist Jean-Joseph de Saint Germain (1719-1791).
The boar motif is not very common and was rarely used for this type of clock. We know of only around ten comparable "Pendule au Sanglier" dating from the period of Louis XV. Most of these pendulum clocks decorated with naturalistic representations of animals use elephants, rhinos and lions. They express the spirit of their time by embodying playfulness and the exotic, which is also represented in the chinoiseries of the time. Most bronze pieces dating from this period were created by Jacques Caffiéri working with Jean-Joseph de Saint Germain.
A similar example is illustrated and described in Tardy, "Les Plus Belles Pendules Francaises", 1994, p. 15 and in "Vergoldete Bronzen" by Ottomeyer/Pröschel, Munich 1986, p. 123, fig. 2.8.4.