A monumental Louis XVI-style marble and ormolu mantel clock 'à la Geoffrin', first part of the 19th century.
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"À la Geoffrin". Executed after the model by Laurent Guiard. Modelled as a reading muse and a boy studying a celestial globe in allegory 'à la étude', the rectangular case adorned with laurel wreaths, drapings, a pinecone finial, and a portrait medallion depicting the Madame Geoffrin, supported by a two-tiered white marble base with ormolu mounts of laurel wreaths and entrelac. The white enamel dial marked FERDINAND BERTHOUD A PARIS. Length 68, width 28, height 46 cm.
Literature
“The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture”, 1996, vol. I, no. 99 (F267), pp. 440-44; Pierre Kjellberg, “Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle”, 1997, p. 264, pl. A, B.
More information
Madame Marie Thérèse Geoffrin hosted one of the Enlightenment's most famous literary salons, with visitors such as Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Diderot, and David Hume in attendance. She was also an important patron of the arts, and it is in this context that we find the reason for Guiard's choice to portray her as the Muse of Learning.
