Napoleon III clock, after models by François Vion (ca. 1737- ca. 1790). France, third quarter of the 19th century

Napoleon III clock, after models by François Vion (ca. 1737- ca. 1790). France, third quarter of the 19th century
Gilt bronze, enameled bronze and white marble. Hand-painted, enameled porcelain dial.
Paris type "pendule a cercle tournant" mechanism.
Preserves key and pendulum

The magnificent clock stands out for its great similarity to the original model of the Three Graces, made by the Parisian bronze artist François Vion in collaboration with the watchmaker Pierre-Basile Lepaute (1750-1843) around 1769. The design appeared in an album of watchmaking pieces currently preserved in the Insitut National d'Histoire de l'Art in Paris. A watch identical to Vion's was given to the Countess Du Barry at the Palace of Versailles on October 4, 1769, and another (which belonged to General Moreau) is in the Musée National du Château de Fontainebleau. It is a design heir to the German pivoting clocks of the 16th century, a very fashionable typology in the Louis XVI style (1754-1793). In his original model, Vion represented the Three Graces or the Greek Cárites, goddesses associated with love, beauty, sexuality and fertility, understood as life-generating forces. Their names were Aglaya ("Beauty"), Euphrosine ("Joy") and Thalia ("Festivities"), and they were considered daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, although other versions mention Hera, Dionysus or Helios and the naiad Egle as their progenitors. The representation of the three Graces was frequent from the Renaissance onwards, both because of their hermetic character, related to the mysteries, aesthetics and Greco-Latin thought, and because of the more mundane fact that their iconography allowed the representation of three beautiful naked girls.

François Vion was an outstanding bronze caster who became a master in 1764. He collaborated with Pierre-Basile Lepaute (1750-1843), one of the leading watchmakers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Towards the end of the 18th century, he and his nephew Jean-Joseph Lepaute founded a new company that was active until 1811 and won a silver medal at the 1806 Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie. For several decades they were the main suppliers of watches for the Imperial and Royal Garde-Meuble; they were named, successively, Horloger de l'Empereur and Horloger du Roi.