French porcelain mantel clock by Dagoty and Honore

French porcelain mantel clock by Dagoty and Honore
French, c. 1830
Height 61cm, width 25.5cm, depth 16.5cm

This beautiful Gothic Revival style porcelain clock was made by the prestigious French firm Dagoty and Honore, founded by the esteemed porcelain makers Pierre-Louis Dagoty and Edouard Honore. Dagoty and Honore's factory in Paris was highly regarded in the early 19th Century, and it came under the protection of the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon I of France. This cream-coloured porcelain clock is one of the later and more accomplished works produced by Dagoty and Honore, and is shaped to look like a Gothic cathedral, complete with spires, arches, a bell tower, and beautiful gilded highlights.

The clock dial is set into the centre of the cathedral and features individual enamelled plaques containing Roman numerals. Around it there are windows, turrets, and arches in the Gothic style, and at the bottom there is an arched doorway with a trompe l'oeil scene showing figures in a cathedral interior. At either side of the doorway there are further trompe l'oeil panels depicting Biblical figures, made to look as if they are stained glass panels, and above there further painted windows to the front and sides.

The clock case is surmounted by the bell tower, which shows a hanging bell inside a canopy flanked by parcel gilt turrets. The church is set on a gilt stepped plinth, which is marked to the underside with a stencilled maker's mark for 'Ancienne Maison Dagoty / Ed. Honor? / A Paris / No. 4 Boulevard Poissoniere'.

Artist/maker: Dagoty and Honore (French, active early 19th century)