IMPORTANT MANTEL CLOCK "L'ÉTUDE ET LA PHILOSOPHIE" or "LES ARTS ET LES SCIENCES" WITH SECONDS, DATE AND DAY OF THE WEEK,
Louis XVI, Paris ca. 1785. The dial signed ROUVIÈRE À PARIS (Jean Louis Rouvière, Paris, maître 1781-1789).
White marble, and burnished and gilt bronze. The white enamel dial with front glazing and with Arabic numerals for the hours and minutes, as well as the days and dates in red enamel. Gilt hands, the date-hand with arrow tip, blued. The movement with scissor escapement, striking the 1/2-hour on bell. The counter-tip of the second-hand, broken off. One foot missing.
68 x 15 x 55 cm.

Literature:
- Gerald van der Kemp, Le conservateur en chef de Musée de Versailles et des Trianons, Versailles, Publisher Parklane New York, full page illustration on p. 124. - Jean Dominique Augarde, Les Ouvriers du temps la pendule à Paris de Louis XIV Napoleon I/ Ornamental clocks and clock makers in 18th century Paris, Edition Antiquorum, Ill. p. 206 (here also with a slightly divergent relief decoration on the base).
- Ottomeyer/ P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen - Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, Munich 1986, I, p. 195, Ill. 4.17.5, drawing by F. Rémond.
- P. Verlet, Les Bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1987, p. 322, Ill. 357, a pendulum clock from the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères. (842014).