A fine French Louis XIV period tête de poupée bedchamber clock of rare small size by this highly respected Parisian maker.

The clock has a bombé-shaped tête de poupée case surmounted by a cast ormolu cockerel, set on a plinth above five turned finials on the gilt brass caddy top. The cockerel is a symbol of daybreak –‘un point du jour’. The oak carcase is veneered in tortoiseshell with brass Boulle marquetry inlay to the sides and the clock stands on a brass moulded base raised on four brass bun feet. This bedchamber clock or pendule d’alcove as an example of exceptional boulle and tortoiseshell French craftsmanship of the late 1600s is small and rare in comparison to the more numerous pendules religieuses of the period.

The 3¾ by 5 inch brass dial has a silvered Roman chapter ring with each minute increment hand-engraved and the half-hour points marked by cruciform motifs. The centre is decorated with gilt engraved flowerhead and foliate scrollwork on a stippled ground. A subsidiary regulation dial is set in the arch (calibrated II–IX) with a blued steel indicator hand. The lower edge of the dial is signed Louis Ourry Paris in flowing script. The clock retains its original blued steel hands.

It has a 30-hour spring-driven movement with a balance wheel mounted vertically on the ogee shaped backplate. The clock strikes the hours on a bell via a count wheel also set on the backplate along with the externally mounted clicks and ratchet wheels for the twin-going barrels. The brass plates are united by four turned vase-shaped pillars, and the backplate is boldly signed in cursive script by the maker at the base.

Date: circa 1690

Height: 11 in (28 cm)

Width: 5 in (12.7cm)

Depth: 3 ⅞ in (9.8 cm)

*Louis Ourry was an important French Huguenot clockmaker. He  was born in Blois in 1643 and later established a workshop on the Quai Pelletier in Paris where he made and bought and sold clocks until his death in 1699. He was admitted as maître horloger in 1684 and is known to have collaborated with the celebrated ébéniste André-Charles Boulle. Ourry’s clocks are characterised by the refined decoration of their cases, their high-quality movements and often compact scale, as seen in this beautiful little clock.

Louis Ourry had a number of important clients and contacts. Amongst the many visitors to his shop on the Quai le Pelletier near the Pont Notre-Dame was John Locke the English philosopher who came in 1677. Louis told the great man  that he had “given off the way of makeing watches with very great balances in imitation of pendulums because, but several jogs in one’s pocket, they are apt some times to stand still.”

Following his death in 1699, Ourry’s widow maintained the workshop at the Quai des Orfèvres in Blois, where a 1700 inventory recorded several clocks in violation of sumptuary laws, underscoring the opulence and high value of their production. Today there are clocks signed Ourry  in the Louvre, the Château de Versailles, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the British Museum.

A closely related tête de poupée clock by Ourry is illustrated in Antiquarian Horology (Vol. 39, No. 4, Dec 2018) in a fascinating  article by Wauters & Schouten, where it is described as a travelling or bedchamber timepiece.

References:

Tardy, Dictionnaire des Horlogers Français, pp.494-496

AHS Journal, Vol.39, N0.4 Dec 2018, pp.485-503

Louis Ourry (1643-1699). A Huguenot clockmaker in Paris and an early bedchamber clock from his workshop.

Erik Wauters and Chris Schouten

HW6660