Beschreibung:

A fine Louis XIV gilt brass mounted Boulle religieuse table clock of one month duration, Thuret with the case attributed to the workshop of Andre Charles Boulle, Paris, circa 1690 The rectangular two train movement with six shouldered baluster turned pillars pinned through the backplate signed Thuret AParis to lower margin, the going train with large spring barrel and verge escapement regulated by 12.5 inch disc bob pendulum, the strike train with conforming barrel, delicate steel detents and external countwheel for sounding the hours and half hour on a bell enclosed within the superstructure of the case, the 13 by 9 inch burgundy velvet covered rectangular dial plate with fine foliate scroll pierced and engraved gilt brass hands and applied gilt Roman numeral chapter ring incorporating cruciform half hour markers and every minute numbered to outer track, the lower margin applied with a fine crisply cast and chased gilt brass mount centred with a domed cartouche engraved Thuret, AParis flanked by strapwork S scrolls over pierced gallery allowing the motion of the pendulum bob to be seen behind, the red stained tortoiseshell, engraved cut brass and pewter marquetry veneered case with domed caddy superstructure incorporating repeating leaf motif decorated shallow cavetto upstand applied with small flambeau finials over fine engraved symmetrical foliate strapwork to the convex section flanked by larger finials, gilt baluster gallery and tight ebony mouldings to cornice, the front door applied with raised gilt brass leaf cast bezel to the 12 by 8 inch arched glazed dial aperture, with fine marquetry scroll decorated upper quadrants within a repeating pewter ground strapwork panel border flanked by full-height Corinthian pilasters with cast capitals and geometric panel decorated plinth sections, the sides with conforming brass bordered arched windows within line-bordered multi-panel surround decorated with fine engraved foliate scrolls over the apertures and to frieze beneath, the rear with plain rectangular door, the inverted breakfronted complex moulded shallow skirt base interrupted by a shaped foliate scroll marquetry decorated lambrequin apron to front and on brass toupe feet, 57cm (22.5cm) high. The current lot is most likely by Isaac Thuret who was born at Senlis about 1630. After serving an apprenticeship he was received as a master clockmaker at Faubourg St. Germain-des-Prés before 1662 and in Paris before 1675. He held a number of royal appointments and worked from various addresses in Paris before taking rooms in the prestigious Galeries du Louvre in January 1686. Thuret was employed by Christiaan Huygens to make a prototype balance spring watch which was Presented to the Royal Society in January 1675. The invention was disputed by Robert Hooke who had discovered the utility of the spiral in 1660 but had failed to progress it further. Isaac was joined by his son, Jacques, who in 1694 was appointed clockmaker to King Louis XIV. The collaboration between the Thuret clockmaking workshop and that of the eminent ebeniste Andre Charles Boulle, is well recorded and was made particularly easy as Boulles workshops were also at Galeries du Louvre. Isaac Thuret died in Paris in April 1706, and was succeeded by his son Jacques who continued until his death in 1739. The case of the current lot exhibits features which can be seen on other clocks of this period firmly attributed to the workshop of Andre Charles Boulle as illustrated and discussed in Plomp, Reinier Early French Pendulum Clocks 1658-1700 Chapter 4 entitled The heyday with A.-C. Boulle, 1680-1690. Indeed a case (housing a movement by Nicholas Gribelin) with the same design of strapwork panel border to the front door as the current lot (albeit executed in premier-parti rather than contra-parti) is illustrated by Plomp on page 94 (plate 178). The clock by Gribelin also shares the same casting for mount beneath the chapter ring as does another by Isaac Thuret illustrated on