Mantel Clock with Vestals Carrying the Sacred Fire, 1789

Not on View

Medium

gilded, patinated, and painted bronze, Sevres porcelain, enamel on copper, and marble

Dimensions

overall: 50.8 × 65.56 × 18.73 cm (20 × 25 13/16 × 7 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection. Restored through funds given in memory of Alice Withington Clement, member of the Women's Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art)

Accession Number

2015.19.4089

Artists / Makers

Pierre-Philippe Thomire (sculptor) French, 1751 - 1843

Robert Robin (clockmaker) French, 1741 - 1799

Image Use

This image is unavailable for download.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .
Contact us about image usage .

Inscription

on the reverse, engraved or stamped in the gilded bronze under the feet of the sphinx: Thomire / 1789; on the clock face under the "XII": Robin; on the clock face above the "VI": h.ger [for Horloger] Du Roi; on the reverse of a bowl in the enamel urn on the left of the bier, in ink: Thuilerie Boudoir reyne

Provenance

Marie Antoinette, queen of France [1755-1793], Paris. Algernon Green, Brooklyn, and Surbiton Hill Park, London.[1] (Jacques Seligmann, New York); purchased by William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] These two owners are given in Dana H. Carroll, Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue, Part 1, Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 30, and from this source, are listed on the Corcoran's accession record for the clock, in NGA curatorial files. The connection to Marie Antoinette is described as "said to have belonged to" her, and, in later Corcoran label copy, as certainly to have belonged to her and to have been in the queen's boudoir, or private sitting room, in the Tuileries Palace in Paris. The French royal family was forced to move from the palace at Versailles to the Tuileries in October 1789.

Associated Names

Clark, William Andrews
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Exhibition History

2001: Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1925: Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 30.