This sumptuous longcase clock was intended to be the instrument by which all the other timepieces in a grand house were set. Its exceptional precision is due to the advanced movement concealed behind the enamel dial, which displays not only solar but Greenwich Mean Time, as well as the days and months of the year. The works were crafted by Ferdinand Berthoud, one of the greatest clockmakers of eighteenth-century France, and include an innovative pendulum with alternating rods of steel and brass to counteract the effects of humidity and temperature. Balthazar Lieutaud, who specialized in clock cases, made the oak case, veneered in a variety of luxurious woods. The splendid sculptural ornaments are by Philippe Caffiéri, bronzemaker to Louis XV. Only the court—or the king himself—would have commissioned such a clock.
The gilded motifs relate to the passage of time. At the top is the god Apollo, driving the chariot of the sun on its daily journey across the heavens. Signs of the zodiac encircle the dial, and, at the clock’s base, the four seasons are represented in relief, with spring and summer together on the front. On the left side, the nymph Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree by her river god father, allowing her to escape Apollo’s amorous pursuit. On the right, the water nymph Clytie, who always faces the sun, pining after Apollo, changes into a sunflower.
Longcase Regulator Clock
Ferdinand Berthoud’s highly accurate movement and the design of Balthazar Lieutaud and Philippe Caffiéri combined to produce this sophisticated clock for a patron of discerning taste. Lieutaud used only straight lines to construct the simple and elegant case and veneered it with precious, exotic woods such as tulipwood, kingwood, and amaranth. An early proponent of neoclassicism, Caffiéri designed the gilt bronzes in the purest neoclassical style with ornamental elements drawn from classical architecture and subjects from classical mythology. The sculptural group at the apex of the clock represents Apollo driving his chariot on his daily journey across the sky.
Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.
Antoine Feyt, Paris (1790). Vicomte de Saint-Georges, Paris. Vicomtesse de Saint-Georges, Paris. Jacques Seligmann, Paris. J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York, 1902. Duveen. Frick, 1915.
Source: Furniture in The Frick Collection: Italian and French Renaissance, French 18th and 19th Centuries (Pt. I). Volume V. New York: The Frick Collection, 1992.
