Mantel clock

Jean Caillouet (French, born in 1733, active in Paris about 1765–1810)

about 1790

Object PlaceFrance

Medium/TechniqueMarble, gilded and patinated bronze, enameled metal, glass

Dimensions73 cm (28 3/4 in.)

Credit LineSwan Collection—Bequest of Miss Elizabeth Howard Bartol

Accession number27.522

On View

On view

ClassificationsFurniture

Collections

Europe

Provenance1794-1796, probably acquired in Paris by James Swan, Boston, MA [see note 1]; after 1796, with his wife Hepzibah Clark Swan (d. 1825), Dorchester, MA; 1825, after her death, by inheritance to their daughter, Mrs. John C. Howard; by inheritance to her granddaughter, Miss Elizabeth Howard Bartol; 1927, bequeathed by Miss Elizabeth Howard Bartol. (Accession date: September 8, 1927)

NOTES:
[1] James Swan was a merchant established in Paris, and was appointed an official agent for the purchase of supplies in the United States in 1794 by the French Government. His partner was Johann-Caspar Schweizer, a Swiss. According to Howard Rice, the French Government placed at his disposal luxury goods to be exchanged in America for food supplies and war materials. The Swan and Schweizer agency shipped these articles to the United States between 1794-1795, where much of it was sold. However, this piece was among those that Swan kept for his personal use. See H. Rice "James Swan, Agent of the French Republic 1794-1796" The New England Quarterly, Vol. X, No. 3, Sept. 1937, p. 464-486.