French Royal Clocks

Adrian Le Harivel

• Tuesday May 4th, 2027
• 10:30 – 12:30
• Newtownpark Pastoral Centre (map)

Adrian Le Harivel was Curator at the National Gallery of Ireland for 42 years and developed an interest in clocks from research on artists’ depictions and his own modest collecting of French ones. He has since lectured widely on clock and pocket watch themes and is equally fascinated by their aesthetic appeal and workings. His focus on Royal French Clocks came from necessity of compiling a home index of makers, to sort the various contributors.

De-luxe clockmaking in France was a complex business, with movement and casemakers kept separate by Guild rules and additional specialist skills. The name on the dial is only start of the story. Many are on a par with the most celebrated pieces of furniture and similar use of inlaid woods, gilt bronze ormolu and often Sèvres porcelain. The leading figures strove to be appointed Horloger du Roi, that gave them a workshop cum apartment in the Louvre, or to get one of a myriad of other royal appointments. These brought prestige and some commissions. Clocks have always been highly mobile and were relocated, as apartments redecorated for new use. It is still possible, however, to to trace some back specific clocks from the Palaces of Versailles and Tuileries, or the châteaux that ringed Paris, where the immediate family and official King’s mistresses, Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry, were housed. This talk reveals this lost history and links to celebrated figures, especially the keen interest of Queen Marie-Antoinette. She is, invariably, viewed as leader of fashion, in other luxury goods and clothes, then tragic victim of changing politics. Her clock acquisitions rarely get a mention, yet more of hers are identified than any of the Louis from XIV to XVI.