Sunflower Clock

The naturalistically cast sunflower with a detachable bezel inset with a fine watch movement, with white enamelled dial and arabic hours above a foliate stem with an entwined serpent, rising from a circular foliate cast base surrounded by a pierced rim.

The sunflower is a clear allusion to the sun god Apollo and this clock might be inspired by the Metamorphoses of the Latin poet Ovid, which recounts the love affairs of the Olympian gods. The water nymph Clytia was jilted by Apollo, who preferred her older sister Leucothea. Despairing, she refused all nourishment except her own tears and the morning dew. From dawn to dusk she contemplated the path of the sun in the sky. After nine days, Apollo changed the young nymph into a heliotrope, or sunflower. Additionally, the property of a sunflower always to turn to the Sun, alludes to the deference owed to a sovereign, as in the self-portrait of van Dyck with a sunflower, indicating the artist’s unswering devotion to his patron, king Charles I. of England.

The exceptional chasing and gilding of the present model demonstrate the skill of the Parisian artisans of the early 19th century. The movement has been carefully cleaned and revised by our clockrestorer and is in working condition.

Literature

• A watercolour depicting a virtually identical clock is illustrated in C. Plante and R. Garnier, Designs for Gilt Bronze Objects from the French Restoration 1814-1830, London, 2002, p.68, pl.52.