19.5x17x8.5 In.

This grand French mantel clock unites timekeeping with allegory. Cast in bronze and set on a rich, variegated marble base, it depicts a seated woman holding a lyre, accompanied by a cherub at her side. The lyre, long associated with Apollo and the Muses, symbolises harmony, rhythm, and the civilising force of music.

Such allegorical clocks were especially fashionable in 19th-century France, when the domestic mantelpiece became a stage for art and refinement. Music and the arts were recurring themes, reflecting bourgeois ideals of cultivation and leisure. The sculptural group crowns a circular dial in mottled red marble with gilt Roman numerals. 

The movement bears the stamp of Japy Frères, commemorating its Grande Médaille d'Honneur at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition.

As Is, Non-exportable

Provenance: The Estate of Mangaldas Nathubhai