Lot 570

Deverberi à Paris, Height 490 mm, circa 1810
A decorative Empire ormolu chariot clock with half hour strike "Chariot of Love"
Case: bronze, firegilt. Dial: enamel chapter ring. Movm.: circular brass full plate movement, 2 barrels, 1 hammer / 1 bell, 8 day-movement, count wheel, short pendulum.
This mantel clock depicts the figure of Cupid in a two-horse biga decorated with a dragon. The enamel chapter ring with Roman numerals forms the wheel, the spokes are open-worked for showing the skeletonized movement. Rectangular base on four ornamented disc feet with relief scene: Apollo, god of the sun, is following Mercury through the sky in a carriage drawn by four horses, while he looks back at a Muse.
The chariot began to be used in Parisian clock cases during the Empire period. The watchmakers of the 18th century sought new ways to integrate their dials into these models. In the early 19th century, the dial was often fitted to the chariot wheel itself.
A nearly identical mantel clock is described and illustrated in "Die Französische Bronzeuhr" by Elke Niehüser, Munich 1997, p 103.
Jean-Simon Deverberie (1764-1824) was an extremely successful designer, bronze manufacturer and marchand-mercier. Until 1800 he was recorded in the rue Barbette; four years later he was at Boulevard du Temple and from 1812 until 1824 his business Deverberie & Compagnie was based at rue des Fosses-du-Temple. Deverberie was the most important artists of his time to create a series of bronzes and almost certainly the first to make a clock case celebrating the theme of the "noble savage".

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