Jean-Simon Deverberie

JEAN-SIMON DEVERBERIE (Paris, 1764-1824).
"Allegory of Louisiana".
Table clock. Directory period, France, ca.1800.
In embossed bronze, gilt and patinated.
Dial signed by Jean-Simon Deverberie in Paris.
Provenance : Collection of Jean Nicolay (1890-1959), then by inheritance to the present owners.
At least two other similar clocks are listed, one sold in Paris at Sotheby's on November 5, 2014, lot 137, the other in Lyon, Conan studio, on March 19, 2017, lot 184.
Measurements: 34 x 45 x 12.5 cm.

Rare and exquisite mantel clock in embossed, patinated and gilded bronze. Made by the famous bronze artist Jean-Simon Deverberie, who specialized in exotic themes (especially in the representation of African slaves in America and Indian Indians), he develops on this occasion a barouche scene in which the dial of the clock is inscribed on the wheel of the carriage. Thus, the ring dial reveals the skeleton serving as the spokes of the wheel, and the Roman numerals are written in black on white enamel. The embossed hands are gilded. The young lady driving the carriage has been worked with a delicate chiseling that extracts the right qualities and smoothness to the dress, which adheres to her skin modeling her figure. Her hair is tied up in a bun. She holds a riding crop in one hand and waves the reins attached to a spirited horse, in black patinated bronze, beautifully harnessed. Behind the female figure, perched on the step, travels a young black slave, standing with feather plume and loincloth. The little boy wears coral earrings and his eyes are made of enameled porcelain. This figure sets the scene in the context of the southern cotton plantations. The whole rests on a rectangular base adorned with stylized vegetal motifs in bas-relief decorated with foliage, scrolls and palmettes, which in turn is raised on four small feet with foliate hoods.

Among the few known similar models, most of them of later date, it is worth mentioning: a first specimen reproduced in Tardy, La pendule française, Du Louis XVI à nos jours, Paris, 1975, p. 377; a second one exhibited in the François Duesberg museum in Mons (see Musée François Duesberg, Arts décoratifs 1775-1825, Brussels, 2004, p. 54); a third clock of this type is part of the famous collection of the princes of Hesse in the castle of Fasanerie in Fulda (illustrated in the exhibition catalog Gehäuse der Zeit, 2002, p. 93); a third clock of this type is part of the famous collection of the princes of Hesse in the castle of Fasanerie in Fulda (illustrated in the exhibition catalog Gehäuse der Zeit, 2002, p. 93). ); a third such clock is part of the famous collection of the Princes of Hesse at Fasanerie Castle in Fulda (illustrated in the exhibition catalog Gehäuse der Zeit, 2002, p. 93).

Jean-Simon Deverberie was one of the most important bronze artists in Paris at the end of the 18th century and the first two decades of the following century. He specialized almost exclusively in the creation of clocks, torches and candelabra, decorated with exotic figures, in particular African; in fact, around 1800, he archived numerous preparatory drawings for clocks called "au nègre", in particular the models known as "l'Afrique", "l'Amérique" and "Indien et Indienne enlacés" (the drawings are now preserved in the Cabinet of Prints of the National Library of Paris). He set up his studio successively in the rue Barbette from 1800, in the rue du Temple around 1804 and in the rue des Fossés du Temple between 1812 and 1820.