Jacques Nicolas Pierre François Dubuc
Mantel Clock

Mantel Clock

Public Domain

Mantel Clock
HorologerFrench, active Paris, c. 1815–1819
CultureFrench
Titles
  • Mantel Clock
Datec. 1815–1819
Made inParis, France
MediumMercury-gilded brass (ormolu), iron, glass, and enamel
Dimensions16 × 10 5/8 × 4 1/2 in. (40.6 × 27 × 11.4 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.61.5
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Music Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
DescriptionThis mantel clock is attributed to the horologer Jacques Nicolas Pierre François Dubuc. One Parisian clockmaker signed clock dials like this one with the surname “Dubuc” and an address on Rue Michel-le-Comte. Research revealed existence of two brothers named Dubuc who were clockmakers and merchants in Paris. Jean-Baptist Charles Gabriel Dubuc (Dubuc le jeune), who died in 1819, is most often associated with the George Washington figure clocks, but his elder brother, Jacques Nicolas Pierre François Dubuc (Dubuc l’ainé), is the one listed in business directories at Rue Michel-le-Comte. Another vital clue was found in a letter dated 1815, to a man in Baltimore by “DUBUC, Aine horloger, rue Michel Le Compte, No. 33.” The letter was published in American newspapers. It discussed Dubuc’s plan to produce mantle clocks in two sizes featuring “the statue of the great Washington.” Also discovered were subsequent (until the financial panic of 1819) advertisements for Washington mantle clocks supplied by several French clockmakers. Lara Pascali firmly identified the maker and established 1815 as the earliest date of manufacture for Winterthur’s clock.
 
Related work: Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Delaware, 1957.1035.
Provenance[Katherine Turner Antiques, Georgetown, Kentucky]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, January 21, 1961; given to MFAH, by 1966.
Exhibition History"Radicals and Revolutionaries: America's Founding Fathers," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 10–May 28, 2018.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Below the dial: WASHINGTON / The First in WAR. First in PEACE / And in his COUNTRYMEN HEARTS
On the dial: Dubuc / Rue Michel-le-Comte No. 33 / A PARIS

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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