A gilt-bronze and bronze–mounted white marble mantel clock, the dial signed Humbert Droz à Paris Directoire, circa 1790

with a circular white enamel dial with Arabic numerals contained within a drum shaped case, surmounted by a reclining Bacchante, flanked by winged cherubs riding rams supporting a lambrequin and vine draped pole on their shoulders, on a breakfront beaded base with rounded corners, inset with a panel depicting the Triumph of Bacchus in relief after Clodion, on toupie feet

Comparative Literature:
Hans Ottomeyer/Peter Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, Vol. I, p. 280, fig. 4.13.1.
G. Wannenes, Le Piu Belle Pendole Francese-Da Luigi XIV all’Impero, Milan, 1991, p. 89.

Humbert Droz, active circa 1773-74

This model celebrates Love’s Triumph by depicting the `Feast of Bacchus’ with a nymph holding aloft a wine tazza, supported on the shoulders of bacchic rams. This model was introduced in Paris in the 1780’s, see the design for a related clock, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, reproduced here in fig.1. Related versions of this model are illustrated by Ottomeyer/Pröschel, op. cit., p. 280, fig. 14.13.1 and Wannenes, op. cit., p. 89.

Also see J.Ramon Colon de Carvajal, Catologo de Relojes del Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 1987, p. 65, no. 48, for a musical clock in the Spanish Royal collection, the dial signed Guydamour, with a similar upper section with cherubs riding goats supporting a pole with a lambrequin and vine swags.