France, Louis XIV period Cartel with the dispute... Lot 31

France, Louis XIV period Cartel with the dispute of Heracles and Apollo in tortoise shell, brass and gilt bronze. The upper part in the form of a dome is surmounted by a figure of La Renommée on the eagle of Zeus. The clock case, rectangular in shape, is engraved in brass on a red tortoiseshell background and is decorated with galleries, foliage scrolls, birds and gilded and chased bronze pots-à-feux. It presents four leafy consoles. The glass door in the front is decorated with a bas-relief of Apollo and Heracles fighting over the tripod of Delphi. The dial with Roman numerals is decorated with fourteen enamelled pieces on copper and signed "Noel Mornand à Paris". The set rests on four clawed feet. The cartel rests on a base of a lamp centered on a leafy cone. Movement signed: "Noel Mornand in Paris". Noël Mornand was a clockmaker active in Paris until the 1730's. Height 87 Width 41 Depth 19 cm. Total height 115 cm, width 84,5 cm, depth 37,5 cm (Misses and accidents). Provenance : château du Blésois. A Louis XIV brass wall clock depicting Heracles and Apollo's fight. Bronze ornaments, enameled face, four clawed feet. Taken by madness, Heracles threatens to destroy Delphi. Apollo tries to reason with him and shelters the most famous sacrificial tripod of antiquity, at the top of which stood the pythia. Their father Zeus intervenes by separating them with lightning. This fratricidal struggle against a backdrop of religious tension is a recurring scene in Attic black-figure ceramics, which here inspires Parisian clockwork, also paying homage to the famous Dome des Invalides erected by the Sun King.