A large and important French Empire figural mantle clock. The ormolu case with a stepped plinth has an extremely well cast and finished cockerel flanked by flambeaus, is covered by a drape and is surmounted by stacked books. The superbly cast patinated female, the personification of ‘Study’, is dressed in flowing classical attire, clutches a rolled ormolu scroll and casually leans upon the top book. The whole stands upon a red variegated marble base with bun feet that incorporates a wonderfully detailed frieze done in very high relief and depicts putti personifying ‘Industry’, ‘Astronomy’ and ‘The Arts’.

The well-lettered white porcelain dial has black Roman numerals for the hours, ‘a Paris’ centered below and steel Breguet-style hands.

The eight-day time and strike movement has the fast/slow out the dial, the letter ‘F’ stamped on the backplate, countwheel striking on a bell and still retains the original silk-thread suspension.

Ottomeyer and Proschel attribute the design of this clock to Pierre-Victor Ledure.

Ledure was one of the leading bronzers of the early nineteenth-century and had apprenticed under the renowned bronzer André-Antoine Ravrio. Similar clocks are in the collections of the British Embassy in Paris, The Viana Palace in Madrid and the Brighton Pavilion.

For a similar example see:
‘European Pendulum Clocks’, Maurice, pg. 82.
‘Vergoldete Bronzen’, Ottomeyer and Proschel, pg. 349.