Clock with the allegories of Study and Philosophy, crowned by an eagle
XIX century. Bronze.On display elsewhere
White marble tabletop clock, with ornaments and an eagle in gilt bronze, and two seated allegorical figurines. The figures, a young woman reading and a young man writing, are known as the allegories of study / science and philosophy / the arts, and are modeled after the French sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809). These figures, which Boizot designed in Sèvres porcelain, became very popular, and the merchant and designer Dominique Daguerre had the idea of ??using them to make clocks, which he commissioned the bronzist and master gilder François Rémond (ca. 1747-1812). as a novelty, in 1784. The figures are found in clocks and other decorative compositions, both or just one of them.
In the center, a bas-relief with two naked angels playing with an animal. The clock rests on four flattened disc legs. On the back, rosette decoration at the base, and transparent cover that reveals the mechanism.
The sphere is not signed. It has a glass lantern with golden fillets and placed on a black varnished base. There are versions of this composition modifying the clock and the upper decoration in public institutions, and signed on the dial, such as the Bank of Spain, or in Patrimonio Nacional (Madrid), as well as in various museum collections in the rest of Europe: Versailles with an identical copy, signed and listed as the work of François Rémond; Museum of Decorative Arts of Paris; V&A Museum; Hermitage Museum and other royal collections.
