Modernist Leather and Chrome Desk Clock in Stirrup Form, Attributed to Jacques Adnet, French circa 1950

A small desk clock of considerable distinction, its chrome stirrup frame enclosing a body sheathed in dark green leather with meticulous white saddle-stitch detail. The clock face—set flush within the arch of the stirrup—presents star-point hour markers against a green ground, with slender chrome hands of elegant proportion. The reverse reveals the mechanism housing, equally covered in the same dark green leather, the white stitching continuous and precise on every visible surface. The stirrup form, the leather covering, and the saddle-stitch detail are among the most immediately recognisable signatures of Jacques Adnet’s studio, and this clock is a fine representative example of his output in this idiom.

Jacques Adnet (1900–1984) was one of the most influential French decorators of the mid-twentieth century. After studying at the École Boulle and working under Maurice Dufrene at the Galeries Lafayette, he became artistic director of the Compagnie des Arts Français in 1928, a position he held until 1959. It was during this period that he developed the aesthetic for which he is now most celebrated: objects and furniture in which chrome tubular frames are combined with hand-stitched leather—tan, navy, black, and dark green among the preferred colours—to produce pieces of refined simplicity and material warmth that stood apart from both the austerity of high modernism and the historicism of traditional décoration. His clocks, barometers, inkwells, and desk accessories in this leather-and-chrome manner are among the most sought-after of mid-century French decorative objects.

The stirrup or étrier was a motif of particular importance in Adnet’s vocabulary, its equestrian associations placing his work within a tradition of sporting luxury—the world of the paddock, the country house, and the gentleman’s study—that was central to the taste of his clientele in the 1940s and 1950s. The stirrup clock, small enough for a desk or side table but commanding enough to anchor a composition, became one of his most characteristic and enduring designs. Examples in this condition and colour are consistently sought by collectors of mid-century French decorative arts.

In good condition consistent with age, the leather retaining its colour and suppleness and the chrome its reflective finish. The mechanism appears to be in working order. An attribution to Jacques Adnet is supported by the consistency of the design, materials, and execution with documented examples from his studio.