Hello Tony,
Thank you for sending in this handsome clock to mearto.com for a fair market appraisal.
TITLE:
Napoleon III, Dore bronze and white marble or alabaster, dual barrel springs, eight-day time, and hour and half hourly striking, figural mantel clock with maternal theme, made by Raingo freres, Paris, France, circa 1870s.
PROVENANCE:
My father purchased it at least 50 years ago and he was a jewelry dealer.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: (Size not provided) This is a figural mantel clock done in the baroque manner. The sculpted figures appear to no longer represent the gods and goddesses of Greco Roman times but rather French individuals who mimic the neo-classical style. Sitting atop the case is a sculpted scene of a mother with her three children. The mother still retains the facial features of a neoclassical goddess and wear a diaphanous gown and is in bare feet. The is surrounded by three children who are taking some type of lessons from her. Note that the two make children do not have wings, as cherubs would. They each have a specific task. The boy at the right is learning to color or write on a tablet, the daughter above him is reading from some type of booklet and reaches out to her mother for help and the male child at the lower left has a small hammer and chisel and is sculpting some form. The mother has a roman aquiline nose and warm facial expression as she guides the three children.
Below is the clock case centering the dial. Above the central section is a break arch pediment sitting above the foliate Dore bronze glazed dial bezel which is flanked by two vertical alabaster panels surrounded in ormolu rectangle of rippled moulding. Within these narrow panels are vertical flowers with seed pods and perhaps grapes of the harvest. To either side of the central façade the pediment fans out and slopes downwards towards each side. There are ormolu vasiform patterns from which flowers and vines flow forth and form pinwheels and curls against the white marble of alabaster rectilinear shaped panels. Similar arrangements appear on both chamfered corners and side panels. A door at the back of the case provides access to the movement. Below is the base moulding arranged in horizontally aligned rectangular panels. Below the dial there is a white glazed panel with vines, leaves, seed pods and fruit. Flanked by square panels of Dore bronze rosettes and most laterally a repetition of the flowers, leaves and fruit in Dore bronze. The clock rests on gilt Dore bronze toupie feet. It is very likely that the sculpted statues were made by a division of the Raingo freres.
Dial: White enameled porcelain dial with black Roman hour chapter ring, closed bar minute track with Arabic numerals placed at every five-minute marker around the circumference of the dial. There is an Achille Brocot aperture for making the movement faster and slower from the dial side. (Invented by Brocot in 1841 and in common usage after 1950 throughout France.) There are two spring winding apertures on the dial. The dial is signed Raingo Fres. of Paris (Raingo Freres). . . . . Movement: Round solid brass plate movement, brass tubular pillars connect the plates and are pinned at the back plate, anchor escapement, steel cut pinions, and two-barrel springs power the clock for eight days and cause striking on the silvered bell on the hour and half hour. Striking is aided by a countwheel seen on the upper right side of the back plate. If the movement is signed it would be beneath the bell. There appears to be an Achille Brocot type of pendulum suspension with extra cheeks (invented in 1865). A short pendulum hangs from the spring suspension, but is not shown in full. I would assume that a Raingo freres medallion sits beneath the bell.
CONDITION:
CASE – EXCELLENT CONDITION
DIAL – excellent with no fractures
Movement – Only partially seen but appears to be genuine, original and likely functional.
COMPARABLES:
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/129324193_antique-french-raingo-freres-mantle-clock ((SOLD FOR $2800 IN 2022)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/124697854_an-impressive-mid-19th-century-gilt-bronze-and-sevres-style-porcelain-inset-mantel-clock-the-m (SOLD FOR $1510 IN 2022)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/113676291_louis-xv-style-gilt-bronze-figural-mantel-clock (SOLD FOR $4000 IN 2021)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/113214419_a-french-gilt-and-patinated-bronze-figural-mantel-clock
(Sold for $1300 in 2021)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/111251076_gilt-bronze-clock-putti (Sold for 950 Euros in 2021)
RAINGO FRERES: Z. Raingo, the father, worked first at Gand, France and then Paris (Rue de Clery) making round clock movements in 1810. He developed a patent for these movements in 1815. In 1823 he published his work on such movements. His sons operated as Raingo Freres in Paris for many years, first on the Rue Vieille du Temple in 1829, and Rue de Saintonge from 1840-50. They made bronze statues for clocks on the Rue Veille du Temple between 1860-1900. They opened a London office in 1862. They developed a patented type of escapement for these clock movements. This was quite a successful French firm.
PRICING:
Based on current market values and the excellent condition of your example, I would place the fair market value of your example at $3500-$4000. If you intend to sell this example I would suggest you add a photo of the back plate of the movement with the bell removed and add the proportions of the case.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for your appraisal.
My best,
David
__________________________________________________________________
Dear Tony,
Thank you for contacting Mearto with your appraisal inquiry. I have begun to do the appraisal of your mantel clock. So that I may best assist you, can you do two things for me:
1 - Provide dimensions of the clock case?
2 - Unscrew the movement bell and take a photo of of any medallion on the lower back plate.
Thanks,
David