Industrial clock; DIETTE & HOUR COMPANY; c. 1880.

Industrial clock; DIETTE & HOUR COMPANY; c. 1880.
Brass base and Belgian black marble.
Overhauled and in working order.
Retains pendulum.
Presents signature.
Measurements: 29 x 27 x 17 cm.
The box designed as a cauldron sits on two supports placed on a silver base with tile decoration. It is mounted on a black marble plinth raised on flat brass feet. The boiler is topped by a handwheel with shafts and regulator. The front has a thermometer in the center, flanked by the clock face and a barometer.
The group of clocks whose subject matter is based on machines, navigation and industry is called "industrial clocks". Their origin can be explained by the growing interest in technical innovations and modernization among an ever-widening public in the second half of the 19th century. In addition, there must have been a growing group of people whose wealth was based on this new industrialization and trade. They usually offer numerous items of interest, such as the incorporation of thermometers and barometers. The larger examples usually have independent mechanisms to operate the mobile automatons, as in the case of this clock. Much of the appeal of these pieces was to entertain and impress viewers. One of the main designers and producers was the Guilmet firm of Paris.

The firm of Diette & Hour, also known as Diette Fils et Hour, was a prominent Parisian watchmaking firm active between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded by Charles Victor Hour, trained in the Diette family workshop and later linked to it by marriage, the firm soon established a solid reputation for the technical and aesthetic excellence of its carriage clocks, later expanding its production to luxury mechanical watches.