A very rare and important French Louis XVI gilt bronze sculptural musical chiming mantel clock, Charles Balthazar A Paris circa 1780

enamel dial with Arabic numerals and outer five minute marking signed in red Ch. Balthazar A Paris, gilt and engraved foliate pierced hands, flat bottomed movement with well turned pillars, verge escapement and silk suspended pendulum, similarly signed backplate, countwheel striking on a bell with a separate wheel behind  for tripping the fusee and chain musical barrel mechanism chiming on nine bells every hour, the finely cast and chiselled gilt case surmounted by Nike holding the painted portrait of a lady in an oval frame with ribbons, supported by a standing lion, the base containing the musical mechanism with canted corners hung with garlands with paterae trellis below, the white marble plinth with canted corners raised on four ormolu feet

The signature refers to Henri-Charles Balthazar, one of seven sons of Jean-Baptiste Balthazar of which at least six became clock- or watchmaker. He became master clockmaker in 1717 and is recorded working at several addresses in Paris up until 1783. His son Louis-Charles also became master clockmaker like his father, uncles and grandfather. Tardy, Dictionaire des Horlogers Francais pp.25-26.

The musical mechanism might well be made by the firm of Jaquet-Droz. Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1722-1790) of La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Swiss Jura was the founder of a famous clockmaker family known for their musical clocks and complicated automata. Their production lasted from circa 1730 until well into the first quarter of the 19th century. His son Henri-Louis became also a gifted automata, musical clock- and watchmaker. Together with Frédéric Leschot who was adopted by Pierre, the family established branch offices in Geneva, Paris and London. This present clock might well have the musical mechanism supplied by the Paris branch office. 

The design of this attractive piece was made by the bronzier Francois Vion around 1770. The original drawing for the lion figure is still in existance and is now in the Bibliothèque Doucet. Ottomeyer und Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, pp. 192-193