A fine and very rare bisque porcelain library clock signed by Schmit a Paris. Two classical children sit facing away from each other on each side of the clock housing, one is writing and the other is reading. The clock has a stepped Wedgwood blue base set on eight very fine toupee feet with original omolu. There are five recesses in the base of the case which contain bisque porcelain designs similar to those used by Wedgwood. The recesses are banded by superb ormolu beading very much in the style of that found on clocks by Lechopie. To the top of the clock is an Etruscan style urn in Wedgwood blue with Acanthus handles and a bud finial. The dial is set in an ormolu bezel and has gilt bronze hour and minute hands. The dial is of convex white enamel and has Arabic hour and minute chapters. The dial is signed above 6 o'clock Schmit a Paris. The movement is of 8 day duration, regulated by a silk suspended pendulum and strikes the hours and halves on a bell by means of countwheel striking. The movement is numbered 3864 on the backplate. The bisque porcelain is in very good unrestored condition and the ormolu retains the original gilding. Schmit was working in the Rue Martin from 1800-10. He was the principal clockmaker for Dihl and Guérhard and almost all the cases attributed to them have Schmit movements in them. France circa 1800. The fine case of the Duc d' Angoulême porcelain factory was founded in 1780 by Christophe Dihl (1752-1830) who later, in 1786 made a partnership with Antoine Guérhard (d.1793). Under the protection of the duc d’Angoulême, eldest son of the comte d’Artois, it was recorded in the Parisian rue de Bondy from 1781 until circa 1789 and then at rue de Temple from 1789 up until 1828. Dihl and Guérhard specialised in the production of fine quality biscuit porcelain and plaques that imitated those by Wedgwood. Almost identicl clock illustrated in Pierre Kjellberg, “Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au Xxe Siècle”, 1997, p. 342, 12.75 inches high by 16 inches wide and 4 inches deep ( 31.875 cm by 40 cm by 10 cm).