A rare and important French Louis XVI ormolu and marble musical portico mantel clock, Piolaine, circa 1790

13.5-cm enamel dial with Arabic numerals signed in red Piolaine A Paris, pierced and engraved gilt hands, flat bottomed movement with tic-tac escapement and silk suspended sunburst pendulum, countwheel striking on a bell with connection to the self changing fusee and chain musical mechanism numbered 5097 with 17.5-cm cylinder, playing one of nine airs with 22 hammers on 12 bells, changing the airs autimatically, drum case with foliate ormolu scroll below supported by four ormolu capped black marble columns surmounted by an ormolu mounted freeze topped by an obelisk and four flower urn corner finials, black and white marble base with two further urns on the side supported by fluted ormolu capped pilasters with foliate pierced ormolu mounts in between, the central mount incorporating a jasperware plaque, pierced gilt doors to the sides, rectangular white marble plinth with foliate mounts raised on turned feet 

Michel-François Piolaine became master clockmaker in 1787. He is recorded working in 1789 in the Rue des Ecrivains, and from 1798 until 1810 in the Rue des Gravilliers. Tardy, Dictionnaire des Horlogers Français, pp. 523.