Gaston Jolly Ormolu Bronze Portico Mantel Clock Circa 1800s

Our ormolu bronze mantel lock of portico form by Gaston Jolly of Paris, circa 1800-1810s, features four columns topped by Corinthian capitals and neoclassical motifs including lyres flanked by griffons, foliage and flowers.  Dial signed Gaston Joly fils a Paris

With original pendulum.  Hour bell working but the movement needs servicing.  Movement has old restoration.

Pierre-Francois-Gaston Jolly, better known as Gaston Jolly (d. 1824) was one of the leading Parisian clockmakers during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He was received into the Parisian guild of maître horlogers on 6th May 1784 and enjoyed the patronage of Bernard-Charles-Louis-Victor, marquis de Lostanges-Beduer, as well as Charles-Philibert-Marie-Gaston de Lévis, comte de Mirepoix’s wife.  His early clocks were commonly housed in the finest Louis XVI cases supplied by the master bronziers, Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond. Jolly also made a number of watches, one of which has an elaborate enamel case painted with a scene from Jacques Rousseau’s opera Colin and Colette and is housed in the Petit Palais in Paris. 

Gaston Jolly established his firm in 1784 at rue des Arcis, and then at rue Michel le Compte (later renamed rue Michel le Pelletier) before moving to boulevard Poisonnière where he died in late 1824. He married Marie-Catherine Baudin who died in 1784 shortly after their wedding.  Their one son, also named Pierre-Francois-Gaston Jolly, followed his father’s profession as a clockmaker and during the early years of the nineteenth century was established at rue du Pavée Saint-Sauveur.