This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 126
A very fine silvered and gilt petite sonnerie repeating carriage clock with Limoges enamel panels personifying AstronomyThe panels signed CP for Claudius Popelin, the movement with trademark P M in an anchor Last quarter 19th century
16 October 2019, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$13,825 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Watches specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Client Services (San Francisco)
Client Services (Los Angeles)
Client Services (New York)
A very fine silvered and gilt petite sonnerie repeating carriage clock with Limoges enamel panels personifying Astronomy
The panels signed CP for Claudius Popelin, the movement with trademark P M in an anchor
Date: Last quarter 19th century
Movement: With platform lever escapement, striking the hours and quarters and quarter repeating on two gongs, alarm with white enamel setting dial planted on the backplate, selection lever for Sonnerie / Silence, no. 13290
Dial: Roman chapters and gilt fleur de lis hands on a panel depicting Astronomy holding the Celestial Sphere beneath an arch with the figures of the Zodiac
Case: Cannalee with silvered dolphins and swags of fruit to the corners, the arched side panels with figures of the Sun and Moon, within silvered masks, silvered leaf capped handle, no. 13290
Size: 7 ½ in (19cm) high with handle
Date: Last quarter 19th century
Movement: With platform lever escapement, striking the hours and quarters and quarter repeating on two gongs, alarm with white enamel setting dial planted on the backplate, selection lever for Sonnerie / Silence, no. 13290
Dial: Roman chapters and gilt fleur de lis hands on a panel depicting Astronomy holding the Celestial Sphere beneath an arch with the figures of the Zodiac
Case: Cannalee with silvered dolphins and swags of fruit to the corners, the arched side panels with figures of the Sun and Moon, within silvered masks, silvered leaf capped handle, no. 13290
Size: 7 ½ in (19cm) high with handle
Footnotes
French enameler, painter and writer Claudius Marcel Popelin (1825-1892) began his career as an historical painter, and from 1852 to 1862 he sent paintings based on French and Italian Renaissance subjects to the Salon; from 1860, however, his study of the 16th Century inclined him towards the decorative arts. Though initially producing faience, he preferred the painting on enamel.
Working in the tradition of the 16th Century Limosin family, from 1863 he devoted the next 30 years to the art of enameling. His portrait of Napoleon III of 1865 is in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. His masterpiece, Triumph of Truth, exhibited in the Salon in 1867, consisted of portraits of 12 philosophers arranged around the central figure.
His success resulted in orders from manufacturers, and his enamels were used to decorate furniture, bronzes, silver and gold objects and bookbinding plates. Popelin was an erudite artist, a bibliophile and a poet and was one of the circle of artists who met at the salons of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, who became his wife in 1873. He popularized the art of enameling through several theoretical essays. He was the author of L'Email des Peintres (1866), a treatise on the history and techniques of enameling.