Very difficult to find clock with four dials, portico type, with skeleton, Pillard in Troyes, late 18th century.

Clock very difficult to find with four dials, portico type, with skeleton, Pillard in Troyes, late 18th century.
Mercury gilt bronze. Enameled dials.
With four dials and ring movement.
Ring rocker, hand escapement and central seconds hand.
Signed under the central dial by the watchmaker Pillard in Troyes (France).
Works perfectly. Carefully cleaned by a master watchmaker (disassembly, cleaning, assembly, lubrication).
Upper dial with moon phase and two small lower dials. Signed "Pillard à Troyes" on the enameled plate, made and signed on the back by the most famous enameller of the time, "Coteau, rue poupée N°7".
Measurements: 41 x 20 x 20 cm.

This meticulous portico clock is distinguished by its compilation of four dials, the upper one - of the largest size and skeleton type - makes us aware of the time while two subsidiary calendar dials for the days of the week in French and day of the month are presented below it. A final moonphase calendar crowns the watch. This is an exquisite piece of watchmaking that highlights the savoir faire of the eighteenth-century craftsman Pillard in Troyes,

The particularity of the skeleton watch is that its mechanism can be seen on the back and through its openwork dial. Heir to the portico clock, it is usually composed of an arch supporting one or more dials. This form was very successful in the last years of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century due to the desire of watchmakers to demonstrate their mastery and technical progress, as well as in response to the decorative overload of figurative clocks.

Joseph Coteau (1740-1801) was the most famous enameler of his time and collaborated with most of the great Parisian watchmakers of the day. He was born in Geneva, where he became a master painter-enameller at the Académie de Saint Luc in 1766, before moving to Paris a few years later. From 1772 until the end of his life, he lived on Rue Poupée.