Louis XV bronze pendulum clock “Pendule au Sanglier”

An extremely rare and important splendid Louis XV bronze pendulum clock “Pendule au Sanglier”, with half hour/hour self strike and musical movement with 9 tunes that activates on the hour and can also be activated manually

Case: ormulu and patinated bronze, ebonized wood. Naturalistic sculpture of a wild boar, patinated bronze; on its back it carries a drum-shaped clock with volutes, acanthus and oak leaf garlands and a vase on top. High wooden base housing the musical movement, ebonized, oval form on six toupie feet; front with oak leaf ormulu mountings; central sound holes with open work brass grilles and red silk lining on all sides. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, signed, pierced, engraved, gilt hands. Movm.: circular brass full plate movement, gilt, 1 hammer / 1 bell, 8 day-movement,

verge escapament, count wheel, silk suspended short pendulum. Musical movement: heavy rectangular brass movement with chain/fusee and governor, pinned brass barrel, 14 bells, 19 hammers.

 

The wild boar motif for a “Pendule au Sanglier” is extremely unusual and was hardly ever produced. We know of only about 10 similar examples from the Louis XV period.