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The Coffee Delivery Boy

French “Noble Savage” Clock, "the Coffee Delivery Boy", Empire period, circa 1805.
Round movement with anchor recoil escapement, silk suspension, countwheel strike on a silvered bell. Two-week autonomy.

Enamel dial with Roman numerals for the hours and Arabic numerals for the quarters, bearing the signature J… Cellier à Paris (recorded as active in rue du Bourg-l’Abbé in 1806). Finely cut, engraved and gilt brass hands of the fleuron style.

Ormolu and black patinated bronze case representing a bare-chested blackamoor busy pouring the coffee from his back pack into a large barrel, containing the clock movement. A seven-branches palm tree to the right, a long stick in his right hand. Beautifully painted eyes with brown pupils. Base with ormolu relief decorations applied, the bees symbolizing the labour capacity of the blackamoor, but also the symbol of Napoleon Bonaparte. The central scene depicting the harvest of the sugarcane in a typical colonial fashion. Five turned ormolu acorn feet.

Dimensions

H. 29 cm (11”), W. 29 cm (11”), D. 10 cm (4”)

Bibliography

Tardy, La Pendule Française, 2ème partie: du Louis XVI à nos jours, 1969; Pendule au "Nègre”: 29 avril-12 juin 1978, Saint-Omer, Musée de l'Hôtel Sandelin, catalogue de l’exposition; Marie-Christine Delacroix, Les pendules au nègre, L’Estampille, Août 1978; Jean-Dominique Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, 1996; Pierre Kjellberg, La Pendule Française, 1997; Elke Niehüser, French Bronze Clocks, 1999; Catalogue raisonné du musée François Duesberg, 2004.

Musea

Musée François Duesberg, Mons, Belgium; Musée Paul Dupuy, Toulouse, France

Pdf documents to download

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