Artist Info
Ridel
Parisian clockmaker Laurent Ridel produced clocks throughout the late eighteenth century and into the early nineteenth century. Ridel collaborated with other artisans, like the enameler Georges-Adrien Merlet, to create highly decorated clocks. Ridel's skill as a clockmaker attracted important commissions and collectors. Notably, Ridel created a cartel clock for Mesdames Victoire and Adelaïde, the daughters of Louis XV, at Château de Bellevue before 1789.
In 1800, he was recorded as working in the Rue aux Ours in Paris, an indication that, unlike many former royal artisans, he was able to find work during France's dynamic, post-revolutionary period. Later, in 1807, a clock designed by Ridel was sold to the Garde-Meuble Imperial (Imperial Furniture Repository). Art historian Jean-Dominique Augarde has written of Ridel, "[an] expert in clocks, his name is associated only with cases of the highest quality."
