Louis XVI Period Gilt Bronze Lyre Clock, 16th Century, 18th Century

Louis XVI period lyre clock, signed by Merra in Paris. Base in white Carrara marble and gilt bronze ornamentation with festoons, pearl friezes, acanthus and a large sunburst mascaron at the damping. Representative of the Decorative Arts under the reign of Louis XVI, this lyre clock is contemporary with the beginning of the production of skeleton movements whose interest is to make the gear bodies visible. The inverted balance with grid is a particularity of this clock. The strings of the lyre merge with the oscillating grid of the balance. After his accession to the mastery, on November 25, 1773, Pierre-Martin Merra set up his workshop on rue aux Ours, then rue Saint-Denis, passage of the former Grand Cerf. Enameled dial with Arabic and Roman numerals decorated with gilded pastilles for each minute, finely chiseled fleur-de-lis hour hand.