Antique French Charles X period patinated bronze and original mercury gilded ormolu "Borne" clock. Fine clock with superb ormolu in the shape of a borne (or milestone). The subject that of Hero and Leander. He sits by an altar as Hero anoints his hair. The clock takes its inspiration directly from the superb painting by Pierre-Claude-Francois Delorme ( 1783-1859) presented to the Salon in Paris in 1814. Superb modelling, finishing and gilding. The case is surrounded at the front by a very fine ormolu moulding decorated with Acanthis leaf and Amthemion outside of a beaded border. The feet are decorated with a flaming torch passing through two wreaths. The fine dial decorated again with an outer border of stiff leaf and dart pattern, then Acanthus and Amthemion to the middle circle while to the inside the decoration is laurel leaf and forget-me-not flowers. The dial is signed " Galle Rue de Richelieur". Hero in the Greek Myths was a beautiful priestess of Venus who was in love with Leander a young man of Abydos two villages separated by the Hellespont. They were so in love that Leander would swim across the Hellespont while Hero directed his course by holding a flaming torch on the top of a high tower in Sestus on the opposite bank. After they enjoyed many nights of love, one night Leander lost his way because of an orange sunset and drowned. In despair Hero threw herself from the tower and perished in the sea. The movement is of 8 day duration, silk suspended pendulum and striking the hours and halves on a bell by means of a countwheel. France circa 1822. Identical clock in the inventory of the Chateau de Meudon identified as being in the dining room there in 1833. 19 inches high by 10 inches wide and 5 inches deep ( 47.5 cm by 25 cm by 12.5 cm)