Le XVIII1st century rediscovered.-Exquisite Louis style fireplace surround XVI in carefully chiseled gilded bronze and enamelled earthenware with fine cracks adorned on a white background with gold highlights with bucolic landscapes, gallant scenes, cherubs, trophies and floral garlands treated in soft polychromy.
Created on the initiative of Henri-Louis Riondet, director of the Comptoir Général stores, a renowned Parisian jewelry and watchmaking house, it is composed of:
-a "vase clock"- Embellished with a gilt bronze mount combining neo-classical inspired chiseled motifs, floral or even ribboned, with a touch of elegant femininity, it takes the form of an ovoid vase covered on a pedestal topped with a pine cone fretel and punctuated with handles with lion muzzles holding a knotted trimmed scarf in their mouths. In the lower part, emphasizing its Louis XVI inspired silhouette XVI unfolds between two volutes of leafy acanthus, a dazzling floral garland. Its body, interrupted by the dial and the movement, is embellished on the front with a tender musical trophy (basque drum, oboe), ravishing cherubs fluttering, light, within clouds speckled with undulating ribbon-like blossoms; on the back, among autumnal trees, a centuries-old castle emerges evanescently.
Wrapped in delicate floral garlands, twelve fretwork cartouches in white enamel enhanced with gold, a cherub fluttering above loving gardening attributes (watering can, rake, sheaf of wheat and flowers) painted in polychrome on a cloudy porcelain background adorn the dial. Treated with refinement, it has Roman numerals and is signed: "H.Riondet/Comptoir Général".

– a pair of vases forming candelabras. Equipped with a gilded bronze mount similar to that of the clock, the latter present five light arms with scrolls of acanthus foliage at the basins, bobeches edged with campanulate motifs, water leaves; a flamed button tops the central shaft. Each are decorated on their body, within medallions encircled with foliage, with courtly gallant scenes (The Tender Offering, The Declaration of Love), and vaporous landscapes silhouetted with picturesque architecture (gentilhommière or Hermitage, Temple of Love, bridge) reflected in the calm waters of a pond. These pictorial compositions of great delicacy of craftsmanship are signed: "P.Phillipot", porcelain painter active in the Parisian square in the years 1880-1900.

Supported by two spinning top feet alternating with scrolls of acanthus flowers arranged in a clasp, an oval base with worked projections (gadroons and small pieces, frieze of posts) plinths each of the three pieces of this fireplace set.

Dial signed: “H.Riondet/ Comptoir Général” - Movement numbered: 8929 and stamped on the plate: “Comptoir Général/H.Riondet/ 9 Bd Poissonnières/ Paris” - Watchmaker’s stamp: “LP Japy et Cie/ Hors Concours/1878”.
Materials: gilt bronze; painted enamelled earthenware and porcelain, gold highlights; enamel and glass.
Dimensions: -Pendulum: H.: 55; W.: 28; D.: 24 cm. -Candelabra: H.: 56,5; W.: 20×20 cm.
Paris, second half of the XIXth century. Circa 1890. Neo-Louis work XVI of the Parisian Maison Henri-Louis Riondet known as “Grand Comptoir Général- Jewelry, Jewelry- Watchmaking,- Art and Furniture Bronzes” located at 5-9, Bd Poissonnière (Shops)-45 rue du Sentier (Workshops) active between 1876 and 1905.

With a particularly sought-after composition, this luminous fireplace surround alone evokes the spirit of a XIXth century artistic delighting around the years 1880-1900 in the “graces and charms” of a XVIIIth century gone by.
Works by the Goncourt brothers (Art in XVIIIth century, 1859-1870, The Woman in the XVIIIth century, 1887), by Robert de Montesquiou (The Red Pearls, 1899) and Pierre de Nolhac (The Palace of Versailles in the Time of Marie-Antoinette), in the Louis XV-Louis living environment XVI hotels (Hôtels de Yturbe, de Ganay, Duwen, Nissim de Camondo) villas (Vanderbilt, Berwind in Newport), castles (des Champs, de La Rochefoucould-Doudeauville) built or restored by architect-decorators (Destailleurs, Sanson, Parent and Sergent) passing by the paintings of François Flammeng, Madelaine Lemaire, Adrien Moreau, Maurice Leloir., we evoke, recreate and dream not without nostalgia of the enchanting, refined universe staged by Watteau, Boucher, crisscrossed by Me de Pompadour, Du Barry, Marie-Antoinette…
Within the decorative arts, this watchmaking ensemble marked by a neo-Louis XVI "modern in good taste" to which gallant scenes treated in nuanced tones - in the tenderly suggestive manner of pastels - are combined against an idyllic backdrop of hornbeams, offers a seductive "part" of this XVIIIidly dreamed of in the century. In his presence, one thinks of the Châteaux of Bellevue, Bagatelle or the Petit-Trianon.
By its quality, its originality, our garnish - probably ordered by an amateur of the time wishing to possess a little-sold work - also establishes the name of Henri-Louis Riondet within the luxurious Maisons of great Parisian Watchmaking of the second half of the 19th century. XIXth century, a house of European renown prized by a distinguished crowd attracted by “its vast, spectacularly stocked artistic storefronts”.