Drocourt, Paris: An important giant engraved and panelled carriage clock with provenance

A quite stunning and rare porcelain panelled giant engraved carriage clock by Drocourt of Paris, with a wonderful provenance.

The eight-day duration movement strikes the hours and half-hours on a gong, with a push button repeat of the last hour at will. The backplate is stamped with the Drocourt trademark along with the serial number 24988, which is repeated to the original large winding key as well as to the base of the travelling box.

The giant gorge case is decorated with fine engraving on a matt ground and has porcelain panels to each side matching the decoration to the dial. The side panels depict couples dancing in a woodland setting alongside whom are children playing. The dial has black Roman numerals, blued steel spade hands and is decorated with a celestial scene incorporating a young lady lying on a chaise-lounge and day-dreaming wistfully as she looks to cherubs within the sky above surrounding a depiction of herself ‘in love’. Interestingly the decoration is interwoven with the numerals. All three panels are surrounded by a deep blue border highlighted with gold decoration.

Researcher Larry Fabian has undertaken research on these panels and concludes that:

The Drocourt images are from well-known Fragonard sources in which he painted, or authorized engravings to be done for, a series of depictions of allegories of love. The huge and complex “parent” paintings from which the entire series derives are in in the famous Fragonard Room of the Frick Museum.

A panel fixed to the front of the case reads: Presented to Miss Neave by the Tenantry of the Llysdulas Estate and well-wishers of the neighbourhood on her 21st Birthday. 24th August 1893.

Further research by Larry Fabian concludes that:

Miss Neave was Mary Gertrude Catherine Neave. Her twenty-first birthday party was a much-heralded affair, which took place at one of the two Neave family ancestral estates, Dagnam Park in Essex and not Llys Dulas in not the one at Llys Dulas in Anglesey. However, the Tenantry & well-wishers were principally those who were associated with the Anglesey estate. She received a large number of extremely handsome presents, among them a carriage clock of exquisite workmanship, value 50 guineas, from the tenantry and well-wishers… at the Llys Dulas estate in Anglesey, which was presented to Miss Neave by a four-person delegation from there who came to Dagnams to present gifts for the occasion. On the day of her coming-out, there was a celebration at both LLys Dulas and Dagnams with lighted grounds, much rejoicing, and a local band, and a specially composed ode to Miss Neave, read in the Welsh dialect. Mary Neave lived until 1951 with The London Gazette giving her as “a spinster’ who resided at a fashionable Mayfair address at the time of her death.

Further additional research is due for publication by Fabian in the near future, throwing further light on the Neave family and the Llysdulas Estate, along with in-depth historical research undertaken on the paintings depicted on the porcelain panels, including the relationship with the artist Fraganord. Please email for further details.

Derval: The Derek Roberts Collection

Pierre Drocourt, born 1819, founded the Drocourt clock-making business in Paris in 1853 with his son Alfred, born 1847, taking over in 1872. The blancs roulants, rough movements, were made in Saint-Nicolas-d'Aliermont, a town outside Dieppe, where Drocourt had workshops until their sale in 1904, being premises purchased from Holingue frères in 1875 who had previously supplied Drocourt. The clocks were then finished ready for sale at their workshops at 28 Rue Debelleyme, Paris; previously Rue Limoges.

Derek Roberts notes: This giant superbly engraved and gilded gorge cased carriage clock by Drocourt is undoubtedly one of the finest we have had the pleasure of handling.

Leigh Extence notes: For further details of Drocourt see my 2014 Exhibition catalogue: Pierre & Alfred Drocourt: An Exhibition of Carriage Clocks, available via the Extence website.

Dimensions

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Condition report

Stock number