Michael Lake
Head of Department
Lot 95
A good early 19th century gilt bronze mounted French biscuit porcelain figural mantel timepiece with English single fusee movementthe dial signed WEEKS MUSEUM, COVENTRY ST, the porcelain probably by Nast of Paris
5 April 2017, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£8,000 - £12,000
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A good early 19th century gilt bronze mounted French biscuit porcelain figural mantel timepiece with English single fusee movement
the dial signed WEEKS MUSEUM, COVENTRY ST, the porcelain probably by Nast of Paris
the case modelled as a small boat containing the seated figure of Chronos and a standing figure of a putto, the former supporting the drum case wrapped in drapery, the later holding an oar, on gilt bronze banded rectangular naturalistic watery base, the 3" signed enamel Roman dial with Arabic outer quarters, the brass single fusee movement with exposed anchor escapement, 'scape wheel and pallets, raised on a rectangular stepped marble shallow plinth base, the pendulum bob engraved with the points of the compass, 27cm high
the case modelled as a small boat containing the seated figure of Chronos and a standing figure of a putto, the former supporting the drum case wrapped in drapery, the later holding an oar, on gilt bronze banded rectangular naturalistic watery base, the 3" signed enamel Roman dial with Arabic outer quarters, the brass single fusee movement with exposed anchor escapement, 'scape wheel and pallets, raised on a rectangular stepped marble shallow plinth base, the pendulum bob engraved with the points of the compass, 27cm high
Footnotes
Thomas Week(e)s ran Weeks' Mechanical Museum or Royal Mechanical Museum in central London from circa 1788 until the early 19th century. The Museum was based at Tichborne Street, Haymarket before moving to Coventry Street in Piccadilly. Also known as The Museum of Natural Curiosities and Weeks' Museum, the collection was sold by auction in 1834. Presumably visitors to the Museum had the opportunity to purchase clocks and other decorative objects and curiosities during their visit. Week, who was born in England in around 1743, known to have also signed some clocks 'Semaine' and an unsigned example of a gilt bronze clock which is known to have been retailed by Weeks at his Tichborne Street premises modelled as chariot with two putti drawn by a swan is illustrated in Jagger's 'Royal Clocks', Robert Hale 1983, fig. 207, p. 206
The manufacture de Nast was a prominent hard-paste porcelain factory founded in Paris in 1783 by Jean Népomucène Hermann Nast, an Austrian born French citizen. The firm prospered after sales to the government of the French Directory and the court of Napoleon I leading to Nast and his sons opening a much larger factory on the rue du Chemin-Vert in the 11th arrondissement of Paris in 1806. Fashionable patronage by the French upper classes and several royal courts led to increased home and export sales amongst the bourgeoisie. Following the death of Nast in 1817, the factory continued under the leadership of his sons until its sale in 1835.
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