A Fine Gilt-Bronze Empire Style Chariot Clock After Jean-Andre Reiche

The circular bronze annular dial with Roman chapters shaped as a wheel, surmounted by Athena and Telemachus astride a lion-headed chariot pulled by rearing stallions, on a rectangular base centred by an eagle with four fasces-form feet, the eight-day twin barrel movement with silk suspension and countwheel strike on bell.

A comparable design for this ‘pendule au chariot’ first appears in a drawing signed by the bronzier Jean-André Reiche dated 1807 now in Le Bibliothéque Nationale de Paris (Cabinet des Estampes, Le 30, fol.43)

Jean-André Reiche (1752- 1817), born in Leipzig in 1752, was a prominent figure among Parisian bronziers during the Empire period. After moving to Paris, he was received as a master founder in 1785 and established his workshop in rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth, changing his surname from Reich to Reiche to align with French customs. The abolition of guilds during the French Revolution allowed him to create every aspect of a clock case, employing a team of workmen from modellers, casters, and chasers to marble workers. His reputation as a ‘marchand-fabricant de bronzes’ grew as he became a renowned supplier to the Emperor. Upon his death in 1817, his son Jean Reiche continued his legacy, maintaining the workshop’s prestige during the Restoration period. Among Reiche’s most celebrated works is ‘La Lecture’ or ‘The Reader’, now in the British Royal Collection (RCIN 2856).

Literature

Pierre Kjellberg, “La Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle”, 1997, p. 417, pl. D, illustrating a virtually identical clock with movement by Gentilhomme à Paris and eagle on the clock frieze.

Tardy, “Les Plus Belles Pendules Françaises”, 1994, p. 279, illustrating a clock of identical design with an eagle on the frieze below the dial.

E. Niehüser, French Bronze Clocks, 1700-1830: A Study of the Figural Images, Atglen, PA, 1999, pp. 68-69).