A Louis XV style gilt-bronze quarter striking and quarter repeating “Europa & the Bull” mantel clock, the dial signed by Jean-Baptiste Baillon, Paris, 19th century

The clock model depicting "The Abduction of Europa" is often attributed to the bronze sculptor Robert Osmond (1711-1789), featuring a bull supporting the dial, surrounded by several young girls or cherubs. Several variations exist, some also made by Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain. Several examples are illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Vol. I, Munich, 1986, p. 125, including a model almost identical to our clock, no. 2.8.8. A variant with a patinated bronze bull is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe siècle, Paris, 1997, p. 133.

Finally, an identical clock identical is at the Louvre Museum (OA 5168), by Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain, with a dial signed Gilles the Elder. This last piece comes from the Château de Saint-Cloud and the Tuileries Palace.

Jean-Baptiste Baillon, clockmaker,master in 1727.

He successively held the titles of Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire de la Reine (1738), Premier valet de Chambre de la Reine, puis Premier valet de Chambre and Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire de la Dauphine (1770). He was one of the most important clockmakers of the reign of Louis XV but also supplied the Spanish crown. He created numerous clocks and wall clocks; among his works are a musical clock with an elephant, sold at Sotheby's Paris, 11 December 2024, lot 110, and another clock with an elephant, Sotheby's Paris, 27 April 2017, lot 122.