Lot 201

Planchon, Palais-Royal

A very beautiful and rare Parisian miniature tabernacle clock, Renaissance revival style with original tabernacle-shaped, silk-lined morocco case

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The style of the ornamentation imitates that of the large tabernacle clocks of the Renaissance period. The screwed-on, oval silver dial is elaborately engraved with figures and floral motifs. In the centre Prudence is shown with mirror and snake amidst a mountain landscape – she is the personification of reason. Flower and leaf scrolls, cornucopia, birds and squirrels, two mythical creatures with fish tails and a horned devil decorate the areas near the rim.
The left side of the case is engraved with the figure of Temperance (the personification of moderation) with a water jug, rosebushes and snails; the right side is engraved with Fortitude, the personification of strength with a flaming sword, billy goats and pigeons. On top sits an open-worked dome concealing the bell; it is decorated with cornucopia and a winged putto.
This miniature tabernacle was most likely the property of a noble house – the monogram "BQ" crowned by a French count’s coronet with nine tines with pearls is engraved on the back of the case next to Planchon’s signature.
A nearly identical clock is illustrated and described in Derek Robert’s "Carriage and other Travelling Clocks", Atglen, 1993, p. 113.
Mathieu Planchon (1842-1921) came from a family of clockmakers in Bourges. After apprenticing with the famous illusionist Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, he lived at the Galerie de Montpensier at the Palais Royal in Paris from 1870 to 1921. His work was influenced by the neo-Gothic style which was popular at the time and inspired by the famous French architect, preservationist and art historian Eugène Viollet Le Duc. Planchon later developed his own style, which came to be known as 'style Planchon'. Planchon published several books and wrote an article on a major watch exhibition in 1900.
Source: Tardy, Dictionnaire des Horlogers Français, Paris 1972, p. 525.