A very fine small Louis XV gilt bronze quarter repeating cartel described in a 1747 inventory of Jacques Caffieri’s workshop as the "Triumph of Love."
48 cm. [19 in.] high
The case is signed “Fait par Caffieri” in a cartouche below the dial.
Each separate part of the multi piece case is struck with the "Crowned C" excise mark of 1745 -1749.
The movement by Julien LeRoy, signed on the dial and back plate.
The mainspring dated, "juillet, 1748" and signed indistinctly, possibly by William Blakey.
The dial maker’s signature on the reverse: "A N Martinière, P’naire [pensionière] Du Roy / 1748".
Julien Le Roy (1686-1759) was regarded by his contemporaries, as perhaps the most influential horologist of his era. He was a superb craftsman, a scholar who contributed to the Encyclopédie, and who was eulogized by Voltaire as the man responsible for the 18th century pre eminence of French clock making. For this clock, Le Roy made a timepiece movement with pull quarter repeat. The movement has an anchor escapement with a pendulum suspended from a thread.
An identical cartel is in The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Another cartel of 1747, depicting Minerva and Cupid, signed by the same four craftsmen is in the collection of the Getty Museum, Malibu, CA.
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