Lot 20

Joseph Quoniam (???? - 1772) LOUIS XV. MANTEL CLOCK

The imposing and rare French table clock with rich floral decoration points to an exceptionally high-quality bronze craftsmanship tradition in France. They are a combination of a greenhorn veneer, in gilded bronze and polished brass on the sides and inside the clock case. The clock ends at the top with a figural motif of a woman with a fanfare and a branch standing on a brass semicircular pedestal. The technique of marquetry from the greenhorn is unique for its complexity and uniqueness, which can only be dated to the first half of the 18th century in France. Enameled larger parts with Roman and smaller parts with Arabic numerals are inserted into the richly decorated gilded bronze dial. Signed at the brass hands on the dial and at the back of the machine: Quoniam a Paris. Inside the clock box on a brass base coat of arms with the Latin inscription FIDELITAS. Watchmaker Joseph Quoniam became a French master watchmaker in 1740 while running his workshop on the Rue Fromenteau in Paris. The clocks on offer were undoubtedly the top of representative style, as evidenced by the fact that the clockmaker, Joseph Quoniam, was working for perhaps the richest man in France at the time, Louis Jan Maria Bourbonsky (also known as the Duc de Penthièvre), who in addition to the famous Hôtel de Toulouse in Paris owned countless chateaus, several of which did not survive the French Revolution and the period of changing governments of the 19th century. Restored, machine to be adjusted.