Antique French Empire Ormolu Mantel Clock. The Love Letter. Atrributed to Francois Louis Savart.

The fine gilt bronze Empire mantel clock attributed to Francois Louis Savart. (1780-1828) after a model by the same bronzier.

The scenery under the dial shows the resting shepherd giving a letter to a carrier pigeon. On the top of the column the young lady in a classical dress receiving the Love Letter by the pigeon landing upon her knee during  she  rests her feet on an ancient Greco Roman style X-shaped stool or tabouret which stands to the left of the dial. She holds in her left hand a large oval portrait medallion of her lover.
  To the right of the dial  stands a tripod table with three winged monopodia supports. Each of these supports has a female bust and head and feet of a lion. On top of this table rest a writing box, a book (possibly her diary) and a lit candle in a candlestick.
In the column the circular white-enamelled dial with black Roman numerals and and five minutes marking with gilt bronze hands. The movement with silk thread suspension and anchor escapement, strikes full on the hour and half hour once on a single bell. 

The theme of the shepherd repeats itself on the rectangular base with rounded ends, with a pair of sheep flanking a vase of flowers issuing from a palmette.
The whole clock standing on six bun feet.

Literature
:
Ottomayer / Pröschel - Vergoldete Bronzen Page 377 Fig.5.15.13

Elke Niehüser. French Bronze Clocks. Cover & Page 120 Fig.193 & 194
.
Dictionnaire des horlogers français, Tardy, p.111

Encyclopédie de la pendule française, Pierre Kjellberg, p.397

France - Paris, circa 1809.

Period: Empire


Height: 50,5 cm.  (19,9 inches.)
Width:  42 cm.     (16,5 inches.)
Depth: 15.5 cm.   (6,1 inches.) 
Weight: 13 Kilograms.

François-Louis Savart (1780-1828)

The bronzier François-Louis Savart was born on 6 June 1780 and he worked for most of his career in Paris. Savart produced a variety of luxury bronzes from candelabra to clocks. When he designed the original model for this clock, he was established at 11 rue Philippaux. After he died we was buried in the cemetery of Père Lachaise, where upon his grave is a portrait bust of him modelled by the sculptor Sylvestre-Joseph Brun.