Clock
- 123
Commissioned from the Sèvres Imperiale Manufactory by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Paris, 1813;
His gift to Aglae Auguié (1782-1854), Paris, 1814 [1];
By descent to Michel Georges Napoleon Ney (1905-1969), 5th Duc d’Elchingen, by about 1956 [2];
Purchased at Carpets; tapestries; works of art; clocks; important French furniture, Sotheby’s, London, July 1, 1966, lot 60, through S. and R. Rosenberg Ltd. and Rosenberg and Stiebel, and through the generosity of Harry J. Renken, Jr., Dallas, Texas, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1966.
NOTES:
[1] An inscription on the base of the clock reads: “DONNÉ PAR L’EMPEREUR A LA MARÉCHALE NEY LE 1er JANVIER 1814” and the clock is listed in an inventory of Sèvres pieces given by Napoleon on January 1, 1814, Archives Nationale, Paris, O2. 202, copy in NAMA curatorial files. Aglae Auguié was the wife of French Marshal Michel Ney (1769-1815), whom Napoleon called “the bravest of the brave.”
[2] The title Duc d’Elchingen was conferred on Marshal Michel Ney by Napoleon in commemoration of Ney’s victory over Austrian forces at the Battle of Elchingen in 1805. According to Olivier LeFuel, French porcelain expert, in a letter to Raphael Rosenberg, July 19, 1966, NAMA curatorial files, the clock remained with the family and “belonged to the Duke of Elchingen ten years ago.”
