Breant a Paris

The well cast and burnished ormolu lyre shaped frame has layers of decorative beading and numerous ormolu mounts including a floral swag, a Medusa bust on a burnished sunburst, rosettes, chains, tassles and a freeze of interlocking circles. Below are shaped pieces of gray and white marble on a burnished rectangular base.

The white porcelain dial has bold Roman numerals for the hours, Arabic five-minute marks, gilt dots, a 31-day calendar with red Arabic numbers and a steel-cut indicator hand and ormolu scissor hands with fleur-de-lis pointers.

The eight-day time and strike skeletonized movement has well-cut wheelwork, a star cut countwheel and a pinwheel escapement. The whole, dial and movement, acts as the pendulum and is suspended by gridiron from a reverse knife edge suspension and set in beat with a screwed beat adjustment.

Jean-Nicholas-Michel Breant became master in 1778.