Provenance

The movement for this clock is the work of Antoine Crosnier (b. 1732 d. after 1806), who usually signed his dials Cronier or Cronier à Paris. Born in Paris on 13th January 1732, he was the son of Charles Crosnier, a maître-menuisier. In 1745 Antoine Crosnier began an apprenticeship under Nicolas Pierre Thuillier and by 1753 was working independently of a guild, i.e. ouvrier libre but was received as a Parisian maître-horloger in 1763. Crosnier enjoyed considerable patronage from leading members of society such as the maréchal de Choiseul-Stainville, the marquis de Sainte-Amaranthe, prince Belosselsky-Belozerky, the duc des Deux-Ponts and M. Sollier. From 1759 he was established at rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, where he began to produce a considerable number of fine clocks using cases by some of the leading bronziers including Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond as well as Edmé Roy, René François Morlay, Nicolas Bonnet and François Vion. He also used cases made by the ébénistes Jean-Pierre Latz and François Goyer. In addition Crosnier employed the gilder Honoré Noël and supplied the tapissier Nicolas Leclerc.