Beautiful French Empire ormolu and patinated bronze clock of Cupid signed Louis Mallet. It is further signed on the dial H. DE M. D. D' ORLEANS ( Horloger de Monsieur Duc D'Orleans) above six o'clock and numbered 1156 below it and also on the bezel. A really lovely and original clock in quite perfect condition with a superb dial, fully signed and mint and original fire gilt ormolu with the mounts of exceptional quality. The subject is that of Cupid and the clock is decked with mounts of the trophies of Cupid and onene would speculate that this was almost certainly originally given as a wedding present. Winged cupid sits at the stepped top of the clock playing a harp with a laurel wreath bow and finely modelled quiver of arroews beside him. In the top spandrel corners are two ormolu ribboned wreath mounts. Below the dial are two superb figures of cupid offering roses to the flame of everlasting love also decorated with the same wreath. They stand on a platform held up by forget-me-not flowers. The whole clock stands upon four superb ormolu toupee feet decorated with concentric circles of vertical lines, burnished ormolu and swirling lines. The dial is surrounded by a fine ormolu bezel decorated with stiff leaf and bud pattern and with beading within. The white convex dial, fully signed and with Roman hour chapters in black and having blued steel moon hands. The movement is of 8 day duration regulated by a silk susended pendulum and striking the hours and halves on a bell by means of the countwheel system. This purely French 1st Empire clock was probably manufactured within a year or two of Napoleon's fall in 1815 in the Restoration period hence the reference to being the clockmaker to the Duke of Orleans. Louis Mallet was working from 1810 in the Rue J.-J. Rousseau and later at the Rue Neuve des Petits-Champs. An identical clock is in the French National Collection and is Illustrated in Dumonthier's "Les Bronzes du Mobilier National- Pendules et Cartels, Paris, pl 29. 15.75 inches high by 7.25 inches wide by 5.25 inches deep ( 43.75 cm by 18.125 cm by 13.125 cm).