Gilded Bronze Mantel Clock – ‘reading And Knowledge’, Denière à Paris, First Empire

Paris, France, First Empire – circa 1810
Mantel clock ‘Reading and Knowledge’
Mercury-gilded bronze - Dial: White enamel, Roman numerals
Signature on the dial: Denière à Paris
Mechanism: Original wire suspension movement

Refined gilded bronze mercury mantel clock, made in Paris around 1810, during the First Empire period, signed on the dial: Denière à Paris, an important bronze artist active during the Empire and the Restoration, supplier to the imperial household.
The central body of the clock is designed as a relief library, while on either side sit two classical figures – a boy and a girl – intent on reading. The figures are treated with remarkable delicacy and attention to detail, wearing Greek tunics and sporting curly hairstyles typical of the neoclassical style.
The clock celebrates education and knowledge as founding values of neoclassical society, ideals promoted by Enlightenment and Napoleonic culture. The figures are allegorical representations of learning: reading as contemplation, transmission and reception of knowledge. The theme of the library and figures in classical dress is recurrent in imperial decorative production, with references to the Greco-Roman world as a paradigm of civil and moral virtues.
The circular white enamel dial, framed by a palmette frieze, is surmounted by two laurel wreaths, symbols of wisdom and glory. The burnished steel hands complete the elegant design of the clock.


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