Lyre Clock In Gilded Bronze, Louis XVI Period, 16th Century, 18th Century

Louis XVI period lyre clock, signed by Merra in Paris. White Carrara marble base and extensive gilt bronze ornamentation consisting of festoons, pearl friezes and acanthus leaf branches on the base. A female mascaron with a sun at the damping represents the goddess of Dawn. 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 de l'ancien Grand Cerf. Enamelled dial with Arabic and Roman numerals decorated with golden dots for each minute, finely chiseled fleur-de-lis hour hand. Knife-shaped balance suspension. Mechanism to be revised, key and gong present.