”CADRAN TOURNANT” CLOCK. BRONZE, MARBLE. AFTER AUGUSTIN PAJOU (FRANCE, 1730-1809). 19TH CENTURY.

Table clock “cadran tournant”. Bronze, marble. Following models by Augustin Pajou (France, 1730-1809). Movement in working order. A table clock consisting of a stepped base of carved stone decorated with gilt bronze elements of classical inspiration and raised on legs, and a gilt bronze composition with several mythological figures. On one side, an elderly, bearded man holds aloft a scythe, with a winged child on his back; on the other side of the dial appear two winged children, one with an arrow and the other with an hourglass and a torch. This dial houses the clock movement, with the hours and minutes displayed on two white bands, using the system known as "cercles tournant" or "candran tournant." The old man is Cronus (the Greek god of Time, who was eventually assimilated into the Roman Saturn; certain errors or identifications with other deities led to the personification of time as "Father Time," depicted as an old man with hourglasses, wings, a scythe, etc.), and he appears accompanied by Eros (the Roman Cupid, the primordial god of sexual attraction, love, and desire) with his arrows, and Hymen (or Hymen, god of marriage ceremonies, holding a torch), who seems to have taken the hourglass from the god of Time. It could be said, then, that this hourglass symbolizes the triumph of Love (legitimate or proper, hence the allusion to marriage) over Time, or that when love arrives, time stands still. It is necessary to compare the present piece with a Louis XVI clock in the Halim Time & Glass Museum (Evanston, Illinois, USA) known as “The Triumph of Love Over Time,” made in France around 1780. The bronzes of this clock have been attributed to Étienne Martincourt, who used a design by the sculptor Augustin Pajou, and the movement was the work of Gabriel Courieult (signed on the base). Several similar examples are known to exist in private collections. Also noteworthy is a table clock in the Wallace Collection in London in which this “Father Time” is patinated rather than gilded, and the piece stands on a porphyry base (inv. F264), dated around 1780 and also linked to the founder Étienne Martincourt (active 1763–1791) and the design of Augustin Pajou (1730–1809). This piece is said to possibly be a version of a larger work commissioned by the Duchess of Mazarin. The present clock displays iconography very similar to these examples, featuring the same figures in both; however, there are a number of differences. Machinery in operation. Weight: 43 kg.

· Size: 32x25x68 cms