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Annie Lancaster (Chicago, 30/3/2010)
I would like to learn more about my beautiful clock (it is currently being repaired). The repair shop owner suggested that I should look into trying to find out who the artist is of the bronze sculpture of a seated ancient Classical Greek Goddess reading Plato. The clock movement is dated circa 1855-1870 - Médaille d'Argent Vincenti et Cie. I did some research on the internet and I found another clock with the sculpture of a Greek Lyric poet – Sappho – by James Pradier. It resembles the statue on my white marble clock a lot. The statue is not signed and I wonder if another artist, perhaps his student might be responsible for the piece. I know it is hard to determine authenticity based on pictures alone but can you please give me your best opinion on it?
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Douglas Siler (20/2/2012)
I wasn't able to reply to your message immediately and then I completely lost track of it until I began preparing a new version of my website. My apologies for this incredibly long delay!
By now you may have identified your mantel clock and its bronze figure. If not, I have some interesting information about them. Your reading lady is only vaguely related to Pradier's Seated Sapho (Sapho assise), his most popular work. There are actually two versions. The life-size marble statue, which he completed just before his death in June 1852, is on display in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris:
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The bronze version, slightly different, has been commercialized in large numbers – severeal hundred, perhaps, though no one can say exactly how many – and is often used to decorate clocks. Here are two examples, recently sold on auction:
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You will find ample information on both versions in Claude Lapaire's recent work, James Pradier et la sculpture française de la génération romantique. Catalogue raisonné (5 Continents Editions, Milano, and SIK ISEA, Lausanne, 2010).
Pradier's Sapho inspired several younger sculptors. Here are a couple of examples attributed to or signed by his student François-Clement Moreau (1831-1865):
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The first lady seems to be writing on a scroll, or maybe she is composing music since her title seems to be La Musicienne (The Musician). The second, like yours, is reading. Below are two other examples. The one on the right is by Pierre-Alexandre Schoenewerk (Paris 1820-1885). I don't know who did the one on the left – perhaps Schoenewerk as well.
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All four of these figures, like yours and like Pradier's Sapho, have a lyre at their side.
But in fact, your clock has a completely different origin. If you do a combined search for the word « pendule » (or « clock ») and the name « Geoffrin » on the Internet, the results will immediately show you why! For not only will you find the story behind this piece but you will also see numerous examples of it with the same figure as yours. These are commonly known as « pendules à la Geoffrin » (« Geoffrin clocks ») and are all derived from the original one entitled Emploi du temps (literally, Use of Time) which belonged to Madame Geoffrin, née Marie Thérèse Rodet (Paris 1699-1777), whose famous Salon in Paris was frequented by Diderot, Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Montesquieu, among many others leading personalities of the mid-18th century.
If you can read French – or even if you can't! – you should take a look at the illustrated article about the clock on the site www.authenticité.fr. There's a similar article in English on the site www.extence.co.uk. These explain that the orginal model was created for Madame Geoffrin by the sculptor Laurent Guiard, a student of Bouchardon, in 1754, and that she gave a replica of it to Denis Diderot in 1768 which is now in the Musée Du Breuil Saint-Germain in the town of Langres (Haute-Marne), Diderot's birthplace.
A large number of clocks derived from the original were made over a thirty-year period until it was supplanted by a model called « à l’étude et à la philosophie » (« To Study and to Philosophy ») created by the sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot in 1780. Below are but a few of the examples you can see on the Internet:
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A version is also reproduced on the cover of the April 1989 issue (n° 224) of the magazine L'Objet d'Art which has an article on it entitled « La pendule à la Geoffrin ». As you can see, Moreau's reading lady is nothing more than an imitation of the Geoffrin figure. And it would appear that the latter is none other than Madame Geoffrin herself as she was painted by Jean-Marc Nattier, who portrayed her seated in a park or forest with her left hand and forearm resting on an open book:
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As for your clock's movement, there are many other examples on the Internet signed, like yours, Vincenti et Cie Médaille d'Argent, often followed by the date 1855. Vincenti, a Corsican, set up shop in Montbéliard in 1823 using machines of his own invention but went bankrupt within the year, at which point the business was taken over by his manager Roux to become Vincenti et Cie. He died in 1834 but the company survived him and moved to Paris where it became one of the most productive clock mouvement makers in the world and obtained numerous distinctions, includuing silver medals at the Paris Expositions of 1834 and 1855.
It's worth noting that on your piece the book is being held in an almost vertical position on the lady's right knee whereas in all the other examples shown above it is lying on her lap. By the way, can you tell me why you say she is reading Plato? Is the title of one of Plato's works, or an excerpt from one of them, inscribed on the back of the book or on its open pages?
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Annie Lancaster (22/2/2012)
Thank you very much for your reply. I was unable to find much information about the clock, so I gave up on it until today. I will definitely follow up on all of your leads and do more research. Per your request I am including more facts such as: the Greek Goddess is reading/looking at the following words:
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L'âme
Est
Immortelle
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Platon
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The Spirit is Immortal?
Perhaps this will give you more clues. Please let me know if you have any other questions or need more photos. Again, thank you very much for your research.
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Douglas Siler (22/2/2012)
It was good to hear back from you and I’m glad to know that after such a long delay my reply to your question may still be helpful. With regard to the writing on the book, the words « L’âme est immortelle » mean « The soul is immortal » and are from Plato’s Republic or one of his other works. The immortality of the soul was one of Plato’s major themes and it was much debated by the philosophers who frequented Madame Geoffrin’s salon in the mid-18th century. It would be interesting to know if the the original Geoffrin clock and other copies of it have these same words on them. You might find the answer on the internet.
I just happened on a forum about clocks where someone asks a question about the foundry mark on a model similar to yours (click here to open the link). The mark on that model is a Croix de Malte (Maltese Cross). Does yours have any such marks or writing on it other than the words on the book? If so, they may help you to identify it further. In any case, I think that with what I sent you you have just about everything you need. Your bronze figure is not an original, unique piece, it’s one of many copies of the original Geoffrin figure (apparently a portrait of Madame Geoffrin herself) and probably dates from the 19th century, assuming that it was cast about the same time that your clock’s mouvement was made by the Vincenti company, which began in the 1820’s and thrived into the second half of the century.
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