Beschreibung:

A highly important documentary and dated Meissen mantel clock case, Dated 1727, the gilt-bronze mount probably German, mid-18th century, the movement signed Barrey à Paris, Circa 1700 the clock case modelled by George Fritzsche, the figure group attributed to Johann Gottlieb Kirchner, the slightly waisted case supported on an integral scroll-footed base, below a mythological group atop a simulated tiled roof, the corners moulded with pilasters painted with iron-red, purple and green foliate scrollwork and teminating at each end with a gilt-heightened volute, the lower portion of the body pierced with turquoise-edged foliate scrolls flanking the figure of a kneeling supplicant on the front and a figure wearing a black hat seated on a cushion on each side, all within Böttger lustre and gilt scrollwork-bordered archways, beneath a gilt and enamel dial mounted in gilt-bronze on the front, and on each side beneath a Böttger lustre, iron-red, purple, green and gilt scrollwork-edged quatrefoil cartouche painted, in the manner of J. G. Höroldt, with Chinoiserie figures at various pursuits; the gilt tiled dome of the roof supported above a Böttger lustre arched lintel finely decorated in gilding with Chinoiserie figures amidst foliate scrolls and applied with a female mask, surmounted by the figures of Minerva wearing a plumed helmet and cuirass and the robed figure of Arachne seated on a Böttger lustre and gilt cushion above three small pagoda figures seated cross-legged on gilt-tasseled cushions at the base of the dome; the Böttger lustre and gilt trellis- and scroll-work ground of the columned plinth of the base reserved on the front and sides with panels and lappets edged in underglaze-blue and painted with Chinoiserie scenes, the columns with similar small gilt-edged panels, raised on four scroll feet, applied with turquoise-edged acanthus leaves and heightened in gilding, the reverse brightly painted with a colourful spray of indianische Blumen issuing from rockwork, inscribed Meißen over crossed swords mark and date 1727 in underglaze-blue.The timepiece with 5cm dial with cartouche enamel numerals, engraved centre and single hand, the gilt timepiece movement with split Egyptian pillars, verge escapement with mock pendulum balance, the balance bridge engraved with foliate scrolls, signed BARREY A PARIS.Height: 17⅜ in.44.1 cmCondition reportFor further information please contact oppenheimer@sothebys.com; +1 212 894 1442.ProvenanceRalph Bernal, M.P. (1783-1854), his estate sale, Christie's, London, April 1855, lot 195, illustrated, acquired at the sale by Sir Anthony de Rothschild (1810-1876) for £120;Sir Anthony de Rothschild, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire;Sold on the orders of his daughters Constance de Rothschild, Lady Battersea (1843-1931) & Annie Henrietta, The Honorable Mrs. Eliot Yorke (née de Rothschild) (1844-1926), Christie's London, June 13-14, 1923, lot 17, illustrated, acquired at the sale by J. Nachemsohn for £294;With J. Nachemsohn, London;Margarethe (née Knapp, 1878-1949) and Dr. Franz (1871-1950) Oppenheimer, Berlin & Vienna, bearing label (by 1927) (no. 135 in black);Dr. Fritz Mannheimer (1890-1939), Amsterdam & Paris, inv. no. Por. 288 (acquired between 1936 and 1939);Dienststelle Mühlmann, The Hague (acquired from the Estate of the above in 1941 on behalf of the Sonderauftrag Linz for the proposed Führermuseum);On deposit at Kloster Stift Hohenfurth;On deposit at Salzbergwerk Bad Aussee;Recovered from the above by Allied Monuments Officers and transferred to the Central Collecting Point Munich (MCCP inv. no. 1563/1);Repatriated from the above to Holland between 1945 and 1949;Loaned by the Dutch State to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in 1952 and transferred to the museum in 1960;Restituted by the above to the heirs of Margarethe and Franz Oppenheimer in 2021LiteratureHenry G. Bohn, A guide to the knowledge of pottery, porcelain and other objects of vertu, comprising an illustrated catalogue of the Bernal collection