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Clock by Charles Le Bon, France, 1730–1760 — view 1 of 1
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Clocks · Clock

Clock by Charles Le Bon, France, 1730–1760

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
Charles Le Bon (maker)
Date
1730–1760
Historical period
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Country of origin
France
Place
Paris
Object type
Clock
Materials / technique
Ormolu with enamel plaque
Dimensions
Height: 47.5 cm; Width: 22.8 cm; Depth: 15.2 cm
Holding institution
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Accession / object no.
998-1882
Credit line
Bequeathed by John Jones

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number 998-1882), this is a clock by Charles Le Bon, made in Paris, France, dated 1730–1760. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Ormolu with enamel plaque. Recorded dimensions: Height: 47.5 cm; Width: 22.8 cm; Depth: 15.2 cm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

Summary — Victoria and Albert Museum

A gilt brass table clock by Le Bon, Paris, circa 1730. Charles Le Bon (1707 - after 1739) was appointed Marchand-Horloger Privilegie du Roi 9 May 1707. He remained in post until 1739.

Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum

A mantel clock in a chased ormolu case described as 'pendule d'officier', signed 'Le Bon a Paris' , 1730-1760 Case and dial: Chased and shaped ormolu case. White enamel dial 4 inches diameter with hours in Roman numerals, minutes numbered at 5 minute intervals in arabic. The winding holes pierced at IIII and VIII. Signed on a white enamel cartouche LEBON A PARIS Movement: plates 5 1/2 inches by 3 3/4 inches (14 x 9.5 cms) with upper corners cut away and lower corners rounded. Signed on the backplate Le Bon Paris Going train to the right, with going barrel and verge escapement, crown wheel of 35 T. Crutch broken off. Provision for thread suspension of pendulum, but without regulation (Contrate wheel and arbor now displaced) Locking-plate striking train to left, with going barrel and eternal count-wheel on arbor of second wheel, allowing also a single stroke at the half-hours. A metal fret in the rear door of the case, lined with red silk, allows the sound to escape.

Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum

Clock, chased and gilded brass case. Signed on an enamel plaque set below the dial 'Le Bon à Paris'.

Provenance

This clock was among a large collection of furniture, porcelain, metalwork, paintings and books owned by the tailor and businessman John Jones, and kept in cramped conditions at his house at 95, Piccadilly. In his will of 4 December 1879 and in a codicil of 22 January 1880, Jones bequeathed the objects to the South Kensington Museum, and they were transferred there after his death in 1882. The Handbook to the Jones bequest, published in 1883, marvels at the value of the gift, which seems still not to have been displayed to best advantage: 'Probably a large majority of those who visit the Jones collection will be indisposed to believe ... that so limited a space as three not large galleries in the Museum can contain furniture and decorative arts worth no less than a quarter of a million of money'. Jones' principal collecting interests lay in French eighteenth-century furniture and decorative arts, of which this clock is an example, as well as reflecting the late-Victorian love of rich, gilded surfaces and historical artistic styles. Acquired by John Jones before 1882; it is one of sixteen clocks he bequeathed to this museum.

Historical context

Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)

Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.

Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.

Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology

Atlas type guide

Domestic clocks

A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.

Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.

What to look for

  • How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
  • The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
  • Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
  • The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
  • Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.

Dating clues

  • Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
  • Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
  • Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapementFoliot

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