Skeleton clock with 5 dials, Paris

Arch pendulum clock with skeleton movement of the late 18th century. Visible movement in chiselled and gilded bronze; it presents five polychrome enamelled dials which is a rarity. At the top, a dial indicated the sun phases. In the centre, a dial with the hours and minutes, two little dials for the months of the year and day of the week. At the bottom, the moon phases. White marble base with brass pearl frieze supported by four skates.

Size: H 44 cm x W 22.5 cm x D 12.5 cm

Paris, late 18^th century.

The particularity of the skeleton clock is to let see its mechanism on the reverse and through its openwork dial. Heir to the gantry clock, it is usually composed of an arch supporting one or more dials. This form was a great success in the last years of the eighteenth century and into the first half of the nineteenth century because of the desire of watchmakers to demonstrate their mastery, technical progress, as well as in response to the decorative overload of figurative clocks.