original text : (Automatic translation)
This spectacular, classical urn of Sèvres porcelain and doré bronze is in fact an incredible French annular mantle clock by Leroy & Cie of Paris. Crafted in an extravagant classical motif reflecting the Louis XVI style, this beautiful timepiece is also called a rotary dial clock. It consists of two rotating chapter dials, with individual ceramic plaques, and tells the time on Roman and Arabic numerals. The bronze doré base also incorporates a Sèvres porcelain plaque, showing a hand-painted pastoral scene reminiscent of the works of Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Very similar clocks are featured in Les Plus Belles Pendules Françaises by Tardy. Leroy & Cies was an active and important maker and retailer of high quality clocks coveted by high society on both sides of the Atlantic. The company established itself in the 18th century and continued to produce, through several successive members of the Leroy family, high quality products for the next 250 years.

The “60” plaque features the maker's name “LEROY”.

Circa 1850

Plaque features Sèvres marks with date letter for 1775.

In 1751, Basile Leroy founded Leroy & Cie in Paris. Among his first timepieces were elegant table watches and clocks engraved and decorated in the finest French tradition. Throughout the 18th century and into the 19th century, a Leroy timepiece was considered a rare and precious possession, one coveted by royalty. In fact, the brand supplied timepieces to such rulers as Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon Bonaparte and countless others. The company also enjoyed appointments as watchmaker to rulers abroad, such as the Queen of Spain, the King of Belgium, the King of Portugal and their Royal Highnesses of Wales. Leroy has also excelled in technical advancements for centuries. In 1766, Pierre Leroy conquered problems of timing at sea and presented King Louis XV with a chronometer timepiece that won him the appointment of Watchmaker to the French Navy.

$59,850.00