This clock was manufactured at Dihl and Guérard’s porcelain factory. Christophe Dihl (1752—1830), a talented modeler / experienced chemist – he developed his own colours for porcelain – joined forces with the Guerhards, the company’s financiers – to create this manufacture in 1781. It quickly grew to become the Sèvres manufacture’s main competitor. When it was created, it obtained the protection of a royal family member, the young Duke of Angoulême, nephew of Louis XVI.

The circular white enamelled dial, signed “Lepaute à Paris”, indicates hours in Roman numerals and minutes via two pierced and gilded copper hands. It is inscribed in a tree trunk on which Hercules is leaning.

The golden circular dial with guilloché decoration indicates hours in Roman numerals and minutes with Breguet hands. Its eight-day movement is spring loaded. Hours and half hours strike with the same single tone. The mechanism is inscribed in a quadrangular case with an arched pediment adorned with cornucopias and a singing bird above. The case is decorated with flowering branches. Two false counterweights connected to gilt bronze ropes complete the set.

The circular white enamelled dial, signed “Vaillant à Paris”, indicates hours in Roman numerals and minutes in Arabic numerals via two steel apple hands called “Breguet hands”. They were created in 1783 by Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), who moved to Paris in 1775.