This description has been translated and may not be completely accurate. Click here to see the original
"L'arrotino" or "rotatore" or "le scythe écorcheur" Antique bronze with brown patina on Sienna yellow marble and patinated bronze clock, chased, guilloché and silvered bronze dial.
L'arrotino of very fine quality, detail, chasing and patina.
Circa 1820-30.
Excellent condition.
height of bronze alone: 23 cm
Total height 50.5 cm
*The antique Arrotino marble featured on a drawing made by Martin Van Heemskerk in Rome in 1536, was acquired by Ferdinand de' Medici in 1578. In 1684, Foggini produced a marble copy after the Antique for Versailles, which was replaced in 1688 by a cast by the Keller brothers, forming a counterpart with a crouching Venus. A letter from de la Teulière, Director of the French Academy in Rome, testifies to the King's particular interest in the Arrotino and his desire to own a version of this famous antique marble. Thus, the inventory of Louis XIV's collection mentions, under no. 14, '...a figure of an agroupy man sharpening a cousteau, 14 inches high...'. Another example belongs to the collection of Auguste Le Fort in Dresden, purchased by Raymond Leplat in France, and a pair is in the Wallace Collection in London (inv.n°S189).
*https://www.coutaubegarie.com/
Ref: 14HAG0E6ST