GALERIE LÉAGE

Galerie Léage has specialized in 18th-century furniture and art objects since 1972. Guillaume Léage is today at the head of the gallery.

Heir to five generations of antique dealers, he promotes a modern and demanding vision of the 18th century and its finest craftsmen. He carefully selects exceptional furniture and art objects from the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI periods, of royal or aristocratic origin, or with an equivalent in a museum or major private collection. These objects perpetuate the values of excellence that distinguish the “Léage taste”.

The gallery has won the trust of collectors worldwide, and curators of important museums around the globe. Many of its objects are now part of major museums’ collection. The gallery also regularly organizes exhibitions in Paris, in collaboration with renowned collectors, leading galleries and foundations specializing in ancient, modern or contemporary art.

Combining Chinese celadon, and French bronzes and clock mechanisms, this clock illustrates the luxurious taste favored by marchands merciers in the 18th century. Precious porcelain was imported from Asia at great expense by the East India Companies. They were collected by European connoisseurs, and often mounted in sumptuous gilt bronzes, the work of talented craftsmen.

During the reign of Louis XVI, this celadon, with its seductive jaspered green color, was given a rich gilt bronze mounting.

The rooster heads on either side of the vase’s body are animated by a remarkable movement, seemingly announcing the dawn. Taking sophistication a step further, the set has been fitted with a clockwork mechanism with a rotating dial, allowing the time to be read through an opening on the front of the vase.

Certainly made for a refined 18th-century aesthete, this clock was part of the collection of Baron Pierre de Gunzburg.