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G. RANDALL FINE ART A GALLERY DEALING IN EXCELLENCE

Exceptional Antique Furniture, Paintings, Sculpture & Works of Art (American, English & French)

145 Water Street Stonington, CT USA 06378 917-562-1658 [email protected]




AN IMPORTANT REGENCE BOULLE CLOCK BY BERNARD I VAN RISENBURGH

Inlaid overall with strapwork panels of scrolling foliage and flowers the

circular cabochon-enamelled dial with both Roman and Arabic chapters

centered by foliate chasing, signed Rabby a Paris to both dial and move-

ment, the foliate-trailed case with a central Apollo mask and domed can-

opy surmounted by a seated Putto emblematic of Athena in armour

flanked by female Caryatids to each side, the glazed door with a relief of

Prudence seated in her chariot, on scrolled foliate feet with grotesque

masks, the tapering pedestal base with an Anthemionstrapwork base band

and waisted top with laurel-wreathed with espagnolette-masks to the an-

gels issuing from acanthus foliage, above a strapwork band and a central

fan with husktails, the rectangular tapering panel with winged maidens

suspending a canopy over a cockerel and with two eagles suspending a

canopy over Minerva, flanked by canted foliate-trailed angles and the sides

with Apollo, Diana and Jupiter Masks with their relevant attributes, the

spreading socle with acanthus angles and a fluted rim above the stepped

and lambrequined plinth with foliate band, restorations, one mount in-

cised BII and the seated Putto-Finial re-supported.

France, circa 1715




This clock and its pedestal represent the missing link between the first

pieces produced by Bernard I van Risenburgh's workshop around 1695

and those, such as the bureau l'Electeur, dating after 1715. There are only

two other documented bracket clocks of this model, one in premiere par-

tie, was sold by Lt. Col. William Stirling of Keir, Sotheby's London, 12 July

1963, lot 134. The other was sold from the collection of Mrs. Elizabeth

Parke Firestone, Christie's, New York, 22023 March 1991, lot 890. A sin-

gle pedestal was sold anonymously in Paris, Palais d'Orsay, 21 February

1978, lot 74. All the pedestals are embellished with berainesque mar-

quetry, the scrolling foliage, birds and animals under canopies, with urns

and masks being recurring motifs. They can be found en partie on bureaux

and tables from the earliest productions of the atelier. The marquetry of

the upper section on all the pedestals is similar to that which occurs on the

back door of a clock with movement by Thuret in the Wallace Collection.

(F.J.BWatson, Catalogue, London 1956, F. 40.)

Height 113in/287cm) Width 27.5in/70cm) Depth 11.5in/29cm) PROVENANCE The Viscounts Hampden Hampden House, Green Street, London until sold by the widow of the 3rd Viscount Hampden. The Marquises of Linlithgow, Hopetoun House, South Queensferry, Scot-land thence by descent at Hopetoun. Alexander and Berendt, London LITERATURE J.D.Augarde and J.N.Ronfort, Le Maitre du Bureau de L Eiecteur, l.'Esta m pi Ile/l'Objet d'Art, January 1991, p. 69, fig. 25 J.D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Antiquorum Editions, 1996, p. 48, fig. 29

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