AFTER THE MODEL BY FRANCOIS VION, CIRCA 1775

This clock corresponds to a pen and ink design attributed to the celebrated dessinateur/bronzier François Vion (maître in 1764). Now in the Bibliothèque Doucet (ref: VI E, 15 Ris), this drawing is inscribed pièce de bureau and was known as 'Douleur' because of the death of the dove, symbolized by smoke in the original drawing and later replaced by a foliate sprig. Referred to as La Pleureuse in the 19th century inventories and sales, this same design featured again in the Livre de desseins no. 31, when it was inscribed with Vion's name and priced at 450 livres.

This model enjoyed enduring popularity in the last quarter of the 18th century. Marie-Antoinette, for instance displayed a clock of this model at the Trianon, whose dial was signed by her clock-maker, Robert Robin, while the comte d'Artois also owned L'amour offrant un oiseau à l'Amité, which he kept in his bedroom in the Palais du Temple in 1777, and which was supplied to him at a cost of 1200 livres (D. Alcouffe, et. al., La Folie D'Artois, Paris, 1989, p. 109).

A clock of this model, by Lepaute is in the Musée Carnavalet, Paris; further examples are in the Reihe von Ausfhrungen; the Louvre; the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; the château de Versailles and the Bayreuther Schloss (H. Ottomeyer/P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, p.247).