Terms and conditions of use
Clock garniture
1871
Medium
porcelain (pâte-sur-pâte)
Measurements
(a-b) 44.3 × 20.7 × 13.0 cm (overall) (day)
(c-d) 36.4 × 39.7 × 14.4 cm (overall) (clock)
(e-f) 44.1 × 20.9 × 13.0 cm (overall) (night)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Dr Robert Wilson Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Robert Wilson, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2003
Gallery location
18th & 19th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
This clock garniture was produced by Louis Solon at the height of his decorative powers and is a tour de force of the pâte-sur-pâte (paste-on-paste) technique. Solon had been a principal designer and decorator at the Sèvres manufactory in France and was lured to England following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. This clock garniture was produced for the Second Annual International Exhibition, held in London in 1872, and was illustrated with a full-page engraved image in the exhibition’s Art Journal Catalogue. Allegorical figures representing day and night are depicted on the side vases, and past, present and future are represented on the central vase. The garniture was made purely as an exhibition piece, since the clock mechanism was never fitted to the central vase.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
Inscription
(a) incised above base l.c.: MLES (monogram)
impressed (vertically) in inside rim of base c.l.: t / MC (monogram) MINTON
(c) painted in white on clock face l.c.l.: L. Solon
painted in white in clock face l.c.r.: Minton
impressed (diagonally) in rim of base c.r.: MINTON
impressed (inverted) (diagonally) in rim of base c.r.: A / MC (monogram)
(e) impressed in base u.c.l.: X
impressed (diagonally) in base u.c.l.: A / MINTON
impressed (inverted) in base u.c.l.: MC (monogram)
Accession Number
2003.440.a-f
Department
International Decorative Arts
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Physical description
Clock and two vases.