Clocks · Garniture set
Garniture Set (one clock and 2 vases)
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1736–1770
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Garniture set
- Materials / technique
- Chinese hard-paste porcelain, gilt bronze, enameled metal
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession / object no.
- 2020.421
- Credit line
- Gift of Horace Wood Brock
- Catalogue title (original)
- Garniture Set (one clock and 2 vases) (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art (object number 2020.421), this is a garniture set, dated 1736–1770. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Chinese hard-paste porcelain, gilt bronze, enameled metal. The record is illustrated with 9 photographs.
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
Description — Cleveland Museum of Art
The fascination with Chinese porcelain among aristocratic circles increased during the reign of Louis XV. In reaction to the perceived excesses of elaborate naturalistic ornament of the 1750s, mount makers increasingly turned to neoclassical designs, known as Goût Grec (Greek taste) in the 1760s and 1770s. These beautifully chased gilt-bronze mounts feature classical Greco-Roman motifs such as lion masks, acanthus and laurel leaves, and pilasters.
Provenance
Horace Wood Brock, Gloucester, MA, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Mantel and French pendule clocks
The mantel clock — the French pendule de cheminée — is as much decorative art as timekeeper. From the late seventeenth century Parisian clockmakers worked with cabinet-makers, bronze founders and gilders (ciseleurs-doreurs) to create cases in Boulle marquetry, gilt bronze and marble, while the movements were often supplied by specialist makers. Clocks of the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI periods, and Empire clocks with allegorical figures, set fashions copied across Europe.
The nineteenth century industrialised the type. The 'Paris movement', a standardised round movement with silk-thread or Brocot suspension and count-wheel striking, was made in huge numbers by firms such as Japy and Vincenti, and fitted into cases of every style and material.
What to look for
- Round 'Paris' movements with makers' stamps (e.g. Japy Frères, Vincenti, S. Marti) and medal marks from exhibitions.
- Suspension type: silk thread (earlier) or Brocot adjustable suspension (after c. 1840).
- Visible Brocot escapement on the dial in later clocks.
- Fire-gilt (mercury) gilding on bronzes versus later electro-gilding.
- Signed dials naming a retailer rather than the movement maker.
Dating clues
- Silk-suspension Paris movements: c. 1800–1850.
- Brocot suspension and visible escapements: after c. 1840.
- Exhibition medal stamps on movements give dates after the medal year.
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) escapement
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