Table clock; France, first third of the 19th century

Desk clock; France, first third of the 19th century.
Mercury gilded bronze.
Suspension of silk thread.
Without pendulum.
Without key.
It presents losses in the gilding and in the needles.
Measurements: 43 x 28 x 18 cm.

French table clock of the first third of the XIX century, entirely made in gilded bronze to the mercury, with silk thread suspension machinery.

The case adopts a composition of great originality, because on a smooth circular drum, decorated with laurel wreaths in festoon and a border on the lower edge, rests a platform on which the main figurative scene develops. Two young men of Hellenistic inspiration, dressed in tunics and with curly hair, are arranged on either side of a tall vertical body representing a bookcase. The figure on the left plays a stringed instrument, while the one on the right holds an open book in an attitude of reading. Both are seated on stools with bare feet. The group alludes to the liberal arts in a neoclassical key typical of the Empire taste. The dial, in white enamel with Roman numerals in black, is framed by a scalloped bronze ring. The upper finial consists of two intertwined laurel wreaths, a motif linked to the Napoleonic symbolic vocabulary.