French Louis XVI cercles tournants mantel clock, Temple de l’amour

Movement
The eight-day movement has a going train with an anchor escapement. The striking train sounds the hours fully and the half hours with a single strike. The horizontal dial consists of two superimposed turning rings with white enamel plaquettes, indicating the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes in Arab numerals.

Case
The clock has been rendered as a classic gazebo-shaped temple and features a biscuit porcelain youth, behind whom is the pendulum between four grey marble columns. The figure and the columns rest upon a white marble disc-shaped base, supported by gilt bronze feet that in turn stand upon a slightly larger grey marble base. The four columns support a white marble tier, adorned with pearl borders, above which the columns are repeated in the form of gilt bronze pilasters. Between these four pilasters is the fully exposed movement, which is of the so-called cercles tournants type. The tops of the four pilasters are interconnected by a draped pearl collar with pendants, suspended midway by an arrow-shaped holder at the front that serves as the indicator hand for the rotating dial. Above this is a white marble hood, crowned with a gilt bronze ornament in the shape of a flickering flame.

The clock is signed on the minute ring: Barancourt à Paris. This model of clock is known as Temple de l’amour (Temple of Love) in reference to the eponymous colonnaded dome near the Petit Trianon in the garden of Versailles Palace, which was built in 1777-1778 based on a design by architect Richard Mique (1728-1794).