Louis XV Gilt Musical

Rhinoceros Table Clock

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A Louis XV gilt-bronze, bronze and Vernis Martin musical rhinoceros table clock, circa 1748, attributed to Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain.

5½-inch enamel dial signed Gudin A Paris with blue roman numerals, the similarly signed bell striking movement with numbered uncut outside count wheel and silk suspension. The drum case surmounted by a seated putto and raised on the back of a crisply cast brown patinated rhinoceros standing on a rocaille base, the bombé wood plinth painted to resemble tortoiseshell and outlined with well-cast gilt-bronze leaf mounts, inset with trellis frets and applied at the front with a rococo mount of a basket of flowers. The similarly signed musical movement connected to the the clock through the leg of the animal and playing one of thirteen tunes on a carillon of eleven bells with twenty hammers at the hour, the mounts stamped with the crowned 'C' poinçon mark.
74cm.; 29in. high.