A good large porcelain mounted gilt-bronze singing bird automaton mantel clock, attributed to Bontems, French, circa 1875

4¼-inch dial with enamel numeral plaques set on a pale blue enamel ring, gilt engine-turned centre with visible Brocot escapement with jewelled pallets, bell striking movement signed  H & F Paris 1876, No.5792 with enamelled butterfly pendulum, the fluted drum case draped with garlands of flowers and surmounted by two doves, the whole raised on a rectangular glazed plinth with seated putti caryatids at the corners and enclosing a brighty plumed bird in a painted landscape, the breakfront plinth with angled corners and inset with three porcelain panels painted with romantic figures in a landscape within blue and gilt borders and containing the separate automaton mechanism causing the bird to sing while moving his beak, head and tail feathers every hour or at will