Lot 198

Michel

Horloger de Mesdames

An extremely rare, very fine quarter repeating carriage clock with quarter hour/hour strike, tailor-made wooden transport case with applied tortoiseshell elements and Boulle marquetry

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The back is engraved with trophies of war, sheets of music and a dove in an oval frame at the top, all surrounded by leaf and flower garlands. A frieze made of rocailles and round sound holes adorns the edges of front and back.
The custom-made wooden transport box is one of a kind. The three visible sides are covered with red tortoiseshell veneer and decorated with "première contre partie" brass marquetry.
Not much information is available on the maker Jean Baptiste Michel à Bourbonne – which is kind of surprising as he obviously had an excellent reputation and is recorded in Tardy’s "Dictionnaire des Horlogers Francais" as maker to Mesdames de France. This title was reserved for the daughters of Louis XV, who often remained at the royal court because they refused to marry any suitor who was of lower rank than a king.
Jean Baptiste Michel was born around 1759 in Martigny-les-Bains, Vosges, Lorraine. In 1784 he married Marguerite Bourdault in Bourbonne-les-Bains, Haute Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, where he worked as a bell founder and clockmaker. The date of his death is not known.
Source: www.watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Michel,_Jean_Baptiste, as of 04/22/2021