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Lot 239

Jean-Jacques (dit James) Pradier, French (1790-1852)
A gilt bronze figure of the Standing Sappho mounted on an Algerian onyx mantel clock
cast by Victor Paillard c 1848

Period Design
7 December 2010, 11:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,920 inc. premium

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Jean-Jacques (dit James) Pradier, French (1790-1852)
A gilt bronze figure of the Standing Sappho mounted on an Algerian onyx mantel clock

cast by Victor Paillard c 1848
the standing figure with a lyre, beside a column signed J. PRADIER 1848 and stamped VP, raised on a Algerian onyx plinth base fitted with a similar dial with Roman numerals, the twin barrel clock movement striking on a bell, the bronze 44cm high, 65cm high overall

Footnotes

Pradier's fascination with the antique exemplified in the present bronze may well have begun with his trip to the Villa Medici to study classical sculpture after winning the Prix de Rome in 1814. He was a pupil of the painter Ingres, and in 1827 became a member of the Academie Des Beaux-Arts. During the 1840s Pradier created a series of female figures in the Antique taste, of which the present example is the most renowned. In fact the critic Théophile Gautier enthused over the figure's 'souple draperie, flottante et précise'.

Victor Paillard exhibited a silvered bronze of the Standing Sappho at the Great Exhibition of 1851 to universal acclaim. It is likely he produced the present example around the same time. The Algerian onyx clock case may well date to the third quarter of the 19th century when the use of this material became particularly fashionable. In 1878 the Societe de Marbres Onix D'Algerie had a an impressive stand at the Exposition Universelle where they exhibited a large clock of similar design to the present case, surmounted by a bronze classial maiden by the important French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887). (This clock was sold at Bonhams New Bond St, December 13, 2005, lot 148, £110,000).

A gilt and silvered bronze example of the Standing Sappho, also stamped V.P. for Victor Paillard was sold by Sothebys, London, November 25, 2009, lot 8 for £10,625.

Additional information

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