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Louis XVI Style Floor Clock By Dasson, signed & Dated 1879The 'regulateur de parquet' is a copy of the model attributed to Jean-Henri Riesener (received Master in 1785), and now in the permanent collection of the Musee de Louvre. This was one of the 18th century models admired by the finest cabinetmakers in the second half of the 19th centuries. It is interesting to note that a barometer version of the clock, also in the Louvre, was made by the cabinet maker Guillaume Grohe circa 1860, whose work was described at the 1867 Exposition Universelle as superior de Risener et Gouthiere. Francoise Linke also made models, (archive number 852). Riesener was arguably one of the three greatest French ebenistes of the 18th century, ranking along with Charles Boulle and Charles Cressent. As a young man, he entered the workshop of Jean Francois Oeben in 1761, (ebeniste du Roi), eventually taking over the workshop after Oeben's death in 1763, and marrying his widow some four years later. He is renowned for completing the famous bureau de Louis XV, designed and started by Oeben and made with the collaboration of another young apprentice, Leleu, himself becoming a master in 1764. This example signed H Dasson and dated 1879 to the lower right-hand gilt-bronze molded edge; with commensurate highest quality chased and gilded bronze mounts. Select image to enlarge |
