Movement
Going train with verge escapement. The striking train with countwheel sounds the hours fully and the half hours with a single strike.
The signed enamelled dial features Roman numerals for the hours and Arabic numerals marking five-minute intervals. Signed on the front: Olin à Paris.
Case
The impressive case is flanked by two putti that represent day and night. Day, i.e. renewed life, holds a burning torch, while Night – eternity – holds a small lamp. On top stands a cockerel, commonly used as a personification of France and a symbol of watchfulness.
It was through wordplay that the cockerel came to represent France: the Latin word Gallus means both “cockerel” and “Gallic”. The cockerel was legally adopted in 1830 as the official symbol of France. Since then, it is an obligatory feature atop the National Guard’s flagpoles, among other things.
The hand of Robert Osmond (1711-1789) is unmistakeable in the bronze case. A French bronze caster, Robert Osmond was born in Canisy, near Saint-Lô; he began as a companion in the foundry of Louis Regnard, “maître fondeur en terre et en sable”, and was registered as a master bronze caster in Paris in 1746. According to the books, he initially worked at Rue des Canettes in the parish of St. Sulpice. Osmond became a sworn member, which guaranteed his artistic freedom to a certain extent. In 1753 he brought in his nephew from Normandy, and in 1761 moved his workshop - which by then had grown significantly - to Rue de Mâcon. The nephew in question, Jean-Baptiste Osmond (1742 - after 1790), was made master in 1764 and subsequently collaborated closely with his uncle – so closely, in fact, that the two men’s works are all but indistinguishable from each other. Robert likely withdrew from the business in 1775; Jean-Baptiste, who continued to run the workshop after Robert’s exit, ran into difficulties in 1784 and went bankrupt. Robert Osmond died in 1789.
As gifted bronze-casters and ciseleurs, the Osmonds worked in both the Louis XV and Neoclassicist styles, with equal success. Their work was extremely popular among connoisseurs, and was distributed via clockmakers and marchands-merciers. Although the Osmonds produced many types of interior objects, such as fire grates, wall sconces and ink stands, their most important works were predominantly clocks, including: a Louis XV style clock featuring the abduction of Europa (Getty Museum, California); two significant mantel clocks in the Neoclassicist style, of which multiple versions exist, and a vase featuring lion’s heads (Musée de Chantilly and the Cleveland Museum of Art); and a cartel clock with chased ribbons (examples of which exist in the Stockholm Nationalmuseum and Museum Nissim de Camondo in Paris). A remarkable mantel clock ornamented with a globe, putti and a Sèvres porcelain plaque may also be considered one of their major works (Louvre, Paris).
Although the Osmonds initially worked primarily in the Rocaille style, in the early 1860s they began to turn their hand to the neoclassicist style as well, in which they achieved great success and renown. The Osmonds primarily supplied clock cases to the most distinguished clockmakers of the time, such as Montjoye, whom they provided with cases for pendules de cartonnier and column pendulum clocks, the latter being one of the Osmond workshop’s most popular products.
Literature:
Kjellberg, P. (1997) La Pendule Française, p.237 .
Tardy, Dictionnaire des Horologers Français, p.493.
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