Important Gilt Bronze Cartel Louis XVI Period XVIIIth

Important gilt bronze wall clock after a model by *Robert Osmond Louis XVI period 18th century. The shock absorber is decorated with a vase with leafy handles topped with a pine cone. The white enameled dial signed **"Lepaute à Paris" indicates the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes in Arabic numerals (chips and light hairs) The sides are decorated with large falls of leafy drapes. The base decorated with a delicately chiseled shell topped with a female mask. Period wire movement working with its key. (not revised, missing the hammer) Original mercury gilt in very good condition cleaned by our workshop.* Robert OSMOND (1711-1789) received Master Founder in January 1748, one of the most important Parisian craftsmen of the second half of the 18th century, creator of numerous clock cases and cartels. **Jean-André Lepaute, born in Thonne-la-Long (Meuse) baptized on November 13, 1720[1],[2] in Thonne-la-Long[2] (Meuse), and died on April 11, 1789[3],[4],[2] in Paris, parish of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois[ref. necessary], is a French clockmaker. We owe him a large number of major inventions and innovations, including the pin escapement. He built for the Château de La Muette and the Luxembourg Palace the first horizontal clock in which the gear wheels were placed one after the other, in the same horizontal plane. The main advantage of this new arrangement was a much lower impact of wear on the proper functioning of the clock. This work earned him accommodation that could be used as a workshop in the Luxembourg Palace. In 1748, he married the daughter of the attaché to the Dowager Queen of Spain, who was staying at the Luxembourg Palace, an astronomer and mathematician, Nicole Reine Étable (1723-1788), who would make complex calculations not only for Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande but also for him. Jean-André became friends with the geometer Alexis Claude Clairaut and the astronomer Jérôme Joseph Lalande, who introduced him to a cultured and wealthy world. He received the title of King's Clockmaker and was appointed a member of the Time System Commission[5]. To expand his workshop, he left the Luxembourg Palace and moved to Saint Cloud; In 1748, he asked his brother Jean-Baptiste to join him. In 1752, they built a single-wheel clock marking hours, minutes and seconds, which they presented to Louis XV. In 1753, they claimed the rest escapement applicable to all Beaumarchais clocks, which earned them a lawsuit with the latter. In 1755, Jean-André was received as a master clockmaker and composed a treatise on watchmaking which would long be a reference work[6] and for the writing of which he was assisted by the astronomer Jérôme Lalande. In 1772, they created, among other monumental works, the clock for the Royal Military School in Paris. Around 1760, the two brothers brought two of their nephews to Paris: Pierre Henry (son of their sister Élisabeth and Jean Henry) and Pierre-Basile Lepaute (son of their elder brother Jean Joseph, and for a time associated with one of his nephews also named Jean-Joseph). They helped them, then continued the family business. The torch was then taken up by their respective sons, who continued in watchmaking but also worked on the construction of lighthouse lanterns·[7]·