Date: about 1715
Maker: cabinetwork attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732), Venus model possibly by Robert Le Lorrain (1666–1743), movement by Jean Jolly (died before 1752)
Materials: oak, rosewood, ebony, turtleshell, brass, gilt bronze, steel, enamel, silk and glass
Measurements: 132 x 44.5 x 34 cm
Inv. no. F93
Venus and Cupid take centre stage on this extraordinary clock. Holding aloft a floral garland, the goddess of love perches on a shell, hinting at her birth beneath the waves, its naturalistic detail and texture suggesting it was cast from life.
The figure of Venus derives from a model associated with Le Lorrain, a sculptor who began his career working for François Girardon (1628–1715).
He later won a position to study at the French Academy in Rome, but was more interested in making models for private collectors than his royal patron, Louis XIV.
Despite this, he would later go on to create sculptures for the king’s gardens at Versailles.
From Venus’s garland, a swag of flowers would have draped across the case. However, this was missing by 1870, when the clock was photographed for the sale of Anatole Demidoff, Prince of San Donato, a fabulously wealthy Russian collector, from whom the 4th Marquess of Hertford acquired it.
There is also a possibility that Demidoff had both the goddess and Cupid gilded, in the 19th-century taste, as an identical clock at Waddesdon Manor shows the figures in patinated bronze.
This clock design can be identified in an inventory made of Boulle’s workshop in 1715, when it was handed over to his sons, while the master models of Venus and Cupid appear in an inventory made after his death in 1732, suggesting it was produced throughout that period.
Beneath Venus and Cupid is a remarkable gilt-bronze clock face, set with enamel plaques showing the hours.
Across its surface, a whirl of cherubs frolic in a highly original design by Boulle, which he used on both his clocks featuring Venus and Father Time (F41 and F43 and F52).
For inspiration, the cabinetmaker may have looked to the Renaissance, as the winged infants recall those Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) painted in the Palazzo Ducale, Mantua.
Boulle was a voracious collector, particularly of prints and drawings, and had a number of works by great Renaissance artists, including Mantegna. One of these could have been the source for the clock face.
The movement for the clock was made by Jolly, the son of a marchand-mercier, or luxury goods dealer. It was repaired in the 19th century by Louis Moinet (1768–1853), who had formerly been secretary to the great watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823).