Eros Cupid Clock In Gilt Bronze, Empire Restoration Period

A Restoration period gilt bronze clock depicting Cupid carrying away time, the bronze attributable to Denière or Ledure, and the mechanism signed Destape, Palais Royal. Antoine Destape, son of the Parisian master clockmaker Noël Marie d'Etape, was established at the Palais Royal in 1808, then in the Galerie de Pierre between 1820 and 1830. The mechanism needs servicing and the gilding needs cleaning; the pendulum is missing. A similar model is held in the collections of the Louvre Museum, with a dial signed Deniere and Matelin, bronze work, inv. OAR375. The partnership between the bronze casters François-Thomas Matelin and Jean-François Denière spanned from 1797 to 1820. Another similar clock is illustrated in Tardy's dictionary with a dial signed Ledure, bronze caster, and Bled, clockmaker. Bibliography: Tardy, Dictionnaire des horlogers, p. 182. Tardy, The French Clock, Part 2: From Louis XVI to the Present Day, p. 431. Elke Niehüser, French Bronze Clocks, page 230