Style Orientalism / Ref.14715
Rococo-style dromedary clock
Dimensions:
Width: 26'' ⅜ 67cm
Height: 30'' ¾ 78cm
Depth: 11'' ⅜ 29cm
Origin:
France, 19th century
Status:
Good condition
This delicately chiseled gilt bronze Rococo-style clock was executed around 1830. It comes from Raulin, in Paris.
Raulin is listed in the commercial almanacs at number 21 Chaume street in Paris in the 1820s-1830s. He is alternatively cited as making “printing matrices and plates”, as a “manufacturer of bronzes, chiseler” and as a “manufacturer of clocks, cups, vases, and all rococo items”.
The object rests on a base whose ornamentation is characteristic of the Rococo style: the curves and counter-curves respond to the volutes while retaining a certain symmetry. Above, various plants (notably reeds) unfold, framing a dromedary turning its head backwards and carrying on its back, above a harness, the clock dial. This is framed with shell motifs; a monkey is suspended, head down, on the right side. The whole is crowned with a monkey eating a banana, lending great lightness to the subject.
These motifs, especially the camel and the monkey, are emblematic of the fascination for a fantasized Orient that emerged in the 18th century before gaining momentum in the 19th century, with Orientalism. Thus, the clock arises from both historicism and the love of the Orient that developed in the first half of the 19th century.
The Louvre Museum houses a superb Rococo clock made by Nicolas Brindeau around 1745-1747, adorned with a reclining camel supporting the clock dial on its back. The whole is crowned not with a monkey, but with a figure perched on the dromedary’s huge hump, dressed in Oriental attire and carrying an umbrella.
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