Antique Rococo style porcelain and gilt bronze clock garniture

Antique Rococo style porcelain and gilt bronze clock garniture
French, 19th Century
The clock: height 65cm, width 30cm, depth, 20cm
The vases: height 65cm, width 28cm, depth 20cm

This fantastic clock garniture is a truly exceptional piece of design, which takes after the elegant beauty of the work of the Sevres porcelain Manufactory. Comprising a set of three beautifully decorated vases, the unusual garniture is also mounted with stunning, intricate gilt bronze mounts which perfectly capture the exuberance and joyousness of the Rococo style.

The vases are all decorated in a similar fashion, with Watteauesque panels to the front and landscape scene panels to the reverse, all on the characteristic Sevres-blue ground. Each vase is mounted on a gilt bronze base, decorated with acanthus leaves, and beautiful, elegant full-length putti, some of which are shown playing musical instruments. Each vase is also mounted at both sides with twin, long scrolling handles, and is surmounted by a porcelain lid with a pinecone finial.

The central vase is mounted to the front with a circular clock dial in a gilt bronze case decorated with ribbons and laurel garlands. The dial is decorated with Roman numerals and a central medallion showing flowers, ribbons, birds and a quiver of arrows.

The clock garniture is marked and signed in several areas. Several of the painted panels bear the signatures 'I. Pepin' or 'D. Boucher', being the artists who have very finely executed the painted scenes on the respective panels. The underside of the lids on the two flanking vases bear the Sevres interlaced-L mark, and painted inscriptions reading 'pate tendre', while the clock's lid is marked 'pendule' on its underside. Furthermore, the reverse of the clock is marked to the gilt bronze mount 'A. B 1058'.

Artist/Maker: Sevres Porcelain Manufactory