Mantel Clock

François Ageron (master 1741?, died after 1783)

about 1775

Medium/TechniqueGilt bronze; white marble; Sèvres soft-paste porcelain column; enameled metal dial; steel; miniature on ivory (?)

Dimensions34.8 x 25.7 x 15.7 cm (13 11/16 x 10 1/8 x 6 3/16 in.)

Credit LineBequest of Forsyth Wickes—The Forsyth Wickes Collection

Accession number65.2236

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsFurniture

Collections

Europe

Provenance1782, probably Marie-Josephine de Laguerre (b. 1755 - d. 1783), Paris; April 10, 1782, probably de Laguerre sale, Paris, lot 28 [see note 1]. Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (b. 1827 - d. 1905), Paris [see note 2]. By 1933, Chester Beatty (b. 1875 - d. 1968), Dublin [see note 3]; November 15, 1955, Beatty sale, Sotheby's, London, lot 131. 1956, Morton Lee, London; January 18, 1956, sold by Lee to Forsyth Wickes (b. 1876 - d. 1964), New York and Newport, RI; 1965, bequest of Forsyth Wickes to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 24, 1965)

NOTES:
[1] This is one of several clocks of similar design. The description of lot 28 in the Laguerre catalogue matches that of the MFA clock, naming Ageron as the maker; his name is painted on the dial of the MFA example. [2] See the 1955 Beatty auction catalogue ("Catalogue of the Important Collection of Sèvres Porcelain, the Property of Sir Chester Beatty," Sotheby, London, November 15, 1955, p. 40, lot 131). [3] Mrs. Chester Beatty lent the clock to the exhibition "Three French Reigns (Louis XIV, XV, & XVI)," Royal Northern Hospital, London, February 21 - April 5, 1933, cat. no. 225.