Clocks

This breastplate Tam-Tam clock was undoubtedly produced by l’Escalier de Cristal after 1885 since it appears in the notebook of Henry Pannier. It shows the mention of the breastplate Tam-Tam clock with the cloisonné dial accompanied by a drawing and below the mention of its version with the crystal dial as we possess it.

Placed on an oval base decorated with silver-plated bronze turtles, this clock model consists of a beautiful curved frame in gilded bronze openwork with Japanese motifs and decorated with dragons and turtles applied in silver-plated bronze. The frame frames a round crystal dial suspended by a double-headed dragon with a sinuous body, it is decorated with a monochrome decoration borrowed from poetry, representing a Japanese lacustrine landscape, where the golden figures are written in Kanji in cartouches with a black background.

This clock reflects the historicist stylistic current of the second half of the nineteenth century by the choice of its form and its decoration which is inspired by the baroque style by associating it with Japonism. Indeed, the body of the clock was made in the shape of a vase with a crystal body cut and mounted in bronze. The crystal-engraved decoration is inspired by European motifs from the previous century. Indeed, there is a decoration all around the dial composed of windings of acanthus leaves surmounted by two angelots and a mascaron of bearded man in a pattern of knotwork.
The decoration of the bronzes is inspired by Japanese iconography. This inspiration can be seen on the chiseled lines in relief that adorn the base in patinated bronze or on the numerals of the dial that use Japanese calligraphy. In addition, on each side of the body of the clock, the creator of this model added bronze studs of a remarkable chisel representing two important crayfish, symbol of gratitude to Japan. Finally, the clock is set with a polychrome bronze figure dressed in a Japanese outfit holding in his hands a carp, an animal emblematic of Japonism

This exceptional Japanese-inspired gilded bronze clock is representative of the European taste of the second half of the 19th century and the production of l’Escalier de Cristal.

Its originality lies in the choice of the main ornamental subject, the turtle. Indeed, it is the back of the carapace of the animal that serves as a dial and support to the enamelled decoration whose scales are represented by a repetition of coloured motifs of oriental inspiration. It is attached to the portico by the four finely chiseled legs of the animal. The portico rests a square base of sea green marble flanked in the corners by golden bronze elephant heads. It is adorned in its upper part with a crab in a setting of algae that the turtle tries to catch.

The portico system is recurrent in the production of the clocks by l’Escalier de Cristal, we find, moreover, concrete examples illustrated in the notebooks of Henry Pannier.

Inspired by Japanese iconography like many objects produced by l’Escalier de Cristal, this small bronze clock of a certain quality of realization, rests on four feet representing elephant heads. Its dial is held by a frame that frames it, representing stylized clouds, characteristic of the Japanese iconographic vocabulary. The dial is decorated with delicate polychrome flowers on a dark blue enamel background imitating the cloisonné. This same enamelled decoration, signed with the monogram «HMP», is found on the base, itself decorated with an elephant head in high relief, echoing the four feet.