the robed, bearded, philosopher holding a stylus and scroll and turning ad sinistram, seated on a pedestal ornamented with anthemion relief castings and turned legs,

The scale and type of this beautifully cast bronze may indicate that it was originally made as a clock surmount. Other classical greats such as Homer are found atop fine Parisian clocks of the 19th Century. It is also likely that such figures were conceived that they could be presented, as here, as a statuette. It bears no maker’s mark but the underside reveals a sectional construction held with old bolts.

Aristotle 384-322BC is remembered as the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic School and, of course the Aristotelian tradition of Philosophy. He was taught by Plato. He is described as a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy: a polymath, who made important contributions to logic, criticism, rhetoric, physics, biology, psychology, mathematics, metaphysics, ethics, and politics.