Large architectural clock in polychrome enamelled earthenware with Neo-Renaissance decoration on a blue background. Resting on three feet, the base is decorated with friezes featuring stylized motifs. The decoration, composed of leafy scrolls, incorporates two confronted monstrous heads with protruding tongues, surmounted by a shield featuring a tree topped by a crown.
Exhibition reports, the contemporary press, and archives attest that Auguste Jean produced several clocks during his career, with a mechanism/movement made by Maison Le Roy & Fils in Paris (Galerie Montpensier at the Palais-Royal), which is missing here.
Signed, this clock brings together the most emblematic characteristics of Auguste Jean's work: the deep blue background for which he is renowned, the pictorial quality of the polychrome enamels, the perfect mastery of decorative composition, and the attention paid to the smallest details.
Condition: Missing mechanisms. Missing top section. One broken leg.
Signature: Signed on the inside, in blue enamel: "Jean AJ".
