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LYRIC LOVE AND CONCORD: AN ALLEGORICAL FIGURAL CLOCK

Description

To be executed in gilt bronze; enamel dial; black marble platform

Cupid, holding a laurel wreath and his bow, the latter resting on the block, fronted by the clock, on which he is seated, his foot resting on a truncated column, a lyre and a circular shield to one side. The shield, ribbon tied to a staff with Bacchic thyrsus cone finial, is charged with a lion and carries Concord's doves. The frieze is centered by a pair of billing doves within a pointed oval flanked by stylised palmettes 15in. High

For the allegorical significance of Cupid, see note to cat. #32. In addition, the billing doves in the frieze signify Love's embraces; the pair of doves facing each other (on the rim of the circular shield) indicates Concord (see cat. #2).

A clock with a very similarly decorated carcass, including rose spandrels to the front of the altar framing the dial and a similar frieze mount (with billing doves within a pointed oval) is in the Spanish royal collection; see Carvajal, 422, #419. A very closely related seated figure of Cupid, but resting his bow in his left hand and putting a moth to the flame of a torchere to his right, is found on a Restauration clock also in the Spanish royal collection; see Carvajal, 295, #281.

Medium

Watercolour, gouache and pen and ink, on laid paper

Dimensions:

50.40cm wide   66.00cm high (19.84 inches wide  25.98 inches high)

Status

FOR SALE