
A Gilt Bronze Antique Mantle Clock "The Altar of Venus", Louis XVI period
Baffert à Paris
Paris, Louis XVI period, circa 1785
Height 40 cm, width 30 cm, depth 11 cm.
Paris, Louis XVI period, circa 1785
Height 40 cm, width 30 cm, depth 11 cm.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
BIOGRAPHY
A
rare Louis XVI gilt bronze clock by Martin Baffert, the white enamel dial signed Baffert à Paris. The dial with outer Arabic numerals for the minutes and inner Roman numerals for the hours, with pierced gilt brass hands. The eight-day movement with anchor escapement and silk thread suspension, striking the hours and half hours on a single bell, with outside count wheel. The case depicts the altar of Venus, surmounted by foliage above a flame; standing on the left, Venus holds a seashell in her left hand; to the right, the winged Cupid is lying on a draped rock with a gadrooned urn at his feet; he is giving the goddess a dove. The shaped plinth is centred by a frieze depicting a pair of doves among foliage, flanked on either side by fluted pillars. The ormolu-mounted ebony-veneered base is raised on turned feet.
A clock similar to the present one, signed Buzot, is in the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
A clock similar to the present one, signed Buzot, is in the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
M
artin Baffert, a master clockmaker active in Paris during the second part of the 18th century, is recorded as working in the Enclos des Quinze-Vingt in 1773.