France's long fascination with Asia dates back to the mid-seventeenth century, when lacquered screens, porcelains and other wares were imported and adapted into some of the rarest, most sophisticated objects produced in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Parisian marchands-merciers such as Thomas-Joachim Hébert, Simon-Philippe Poirier and Lazare Duvaux sought to capitalize on the huge demand for these rare objects, and created their own versions of these coveted imports. Using them for inspiration, along with contemporary engravings of the Chinese Imperial court and designs by ornemantistes, the marchands-mercier created and promoted their own distinct aesthetic, the goût chinois, which was realized by a network of highly-skilled artisans. These fanciful works were prized by the court of Louis XV and particularly by the celebrated connoisseur and Royal mistress, Madame du Pompadour, whose passion for chinoiserie and Japanese lacquer is well-documented.
This precious clock represents the height of the goût chinois with its bronze magot figures painstakingly decorated to resemble the finest Japanese bronze lacquer. Although there is no mark to definitively identify their maker or the date of their manufacture, there is a cartonnier with closely related magot figures by BVRB preseved in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (83.DA.280), whose ormolu mounts are stamped with the ‘C’ couronné poinçon. As this mark was used from 1745-1749, the present clock was most likely made around a year later.
There were several makers who created lacquered magot figures simply to satisfy the huge demand for le goût chinois, but the most outstanding and well-known masters of this field were the Martin Frères. They so thoroughly dominated the discipline of French lacquer, that all French-made lacquer became known as vernis Martin, a term that persists today. Martin Frères were granted a Royal patent to protect their technique as well as a further patent in 1744 to produce lacquer wares 'en relief dans le goût du Japon et de la Chine'. By 1748, they had opened the manufacture Royale de vernis de la Chine. Martin Frères are cited in the 1753 inventory for the Comtesse de Mally, in which line 443 is described as ...pendule faitte par Pierre Le Roy dans une boete de bronze doré avec trois pagodes et au bouquet verny de Martin prisée 400 livres (A. Forray-Carlier and M.Kopplin eds., Le Secrets de la Laque Française Musée Des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 2013, p. 100). The 1768 sale catalogue by Pierre Rémy for the Collection of Monsieur Gaignat is particularly telling. Lot 188 in that sale is described as 'Une trés belle et grande pendule ornée de plusieurs figures de cuivre représentant des magots vernis par Martin, imitant le laque'. The specialist for that sale was the marchand Simon-Philippe Poirier, who having worked with the Martins, could clearly identify their wares. For a further analysis of objets d'art with lacquered bronze figures, see T. Wolvesperges, 'A propos d'une pendule aux magots en vernis Martin du Museée du Louvre provenant de la collection Grog-Carven,' Revue du Louvre, 2001, pp. 67-78.
Related clocks with lacquered figures attributed to Martin Frères include: a clock with a movement by Le Noir that was almost certainly supplied to Prince Charles de Lorraine and was sold in the collection of Magnificent French Furniture Formerly in the Collection of Monsieur and Madame Riahi at Christie's, New York, 2 November 2000, lot 8 ($303,000); one in the Louvre Museum, from the Grog-Carven Collection, with movement by Pierre Le Roy (OA 10539); one sold Christie's, New York, An American Dynasty: The Clark Family Treasures, 18 June 2014, lot 115 ($137,000); one from the Collection of Martin Alexander, sold Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 35 and subsequently sold anonymously at Christie's, New York, 20 April 2007, lot 154 ($168,000); and one, part of a garniture including a pair of candelabra, with movement by Thiot, sold from the Collection of Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1992, lot 7 ($319,000).
Etienne II Lenoir (1699-1778), established his workshop in 1717. His son Pierre Etienne joined him from 1750, and they succeeded in building a considerable fortune.
Thelma Chrysler Foy (1902-1957), elder daughter of Walter Chrysler, was a celebrated society hostess, dubbed by The New York Times as 'the woman of the greatest taste … in New York'. Her spectacular residences included an apartment at 740 Park Avenue, a townhouse on 91st street originally built by the Vanderbilt family and a country estate in Locust Valley. All were furnished with a dazzling array of French Impressionist art and eighteenth-century French furniture, much of which was supplied by Robert Samuels of French and Company. Parke Bernet offered her extensive collection from both her Park Avenue and Locust Valley residences in a landmark series of auctions held 13-23 May 1959.
According to the Parke-Bernet catalogue, the present clock was once in the collection of the Savoy family, who ruled Sardinia-Piedmont in the eighteenth century—and eventually all of Italy, after its unification. Chinoiserie was extremely popular with Piedmontese aristocracy and the royal family, as evidenced by the many colorfully-decorated rooms and halls created in this taste during the second half of the 1700s. Some of the most sumptuous royal interiors were outfitted alla China, the most notable ones being the Gabinetto Cinese in the royal palace and the rooms of the Villa della Regina, both in Turin. For more information on Chinoiserie in Piedmont, see Lucia Caterina Mossetti and Cristina Mossetti, ed., Il Riflesso dell'Oriente nel Piemonte del Settecento, Turin, 2005. The style was particularly well-suited for the Piedmontese audience, which was already accustomed to polychrome-decorated furnishing accented with gilt highlightsm, a trademark of local craftsmen from Baroque to Neoclassicism. This clock, with its rich vernis and gilt decoration, would have harmonized perfectly with an alla China interior and it is possible that it was originally mounted on a piece of case furnishing, such as a cartonnier or a small cabinet.
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