A Louis XV gilt bronze cartel bracket clock, signed on the enamel dial JOUARD A PARIS, c 1750. The waisted rococo gilt brass case, stamped with a crowned C is attributed to Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain. It is decorated by scrolling acanthus motifs with two flying dragons below the dial and surmounted by a reclining putto, all in typical asymmetrical style, set above a tapering foliate bracket. The dial has outer Arabic five-minute and inner Roman divisions in blue and a pair of pierced gilt brass hands. The movement has five tapered pillars, anchor escapement, spring suspension, striking on the hour and half hour on a single bell with outside count wheel. • Height of the clock 51 cm; height of the bracket 24 cm. • The maker, Louis Jouard (d. before 1773), was probably trained at or worked in the workshop of Jacques Cogniet (1661-1731) and his son Jean-Baptiste Cogniet (d. 1726) who were at rue de la Monnaye and where Jouard was also listed in September 1724, when he was received as a maître. When Jean-Baptiste Cogniet died Jouard married his widow Marie-Ursule Prévost and in so doing took over Cogniet’s business. As his standing increased Jouard was asked to act as a Juré of his guild, 1741-43 and 1747-49 and then by 1750 had moved to the cloister Saint-Germain de-l’Auxerrois. Jouard is known to have to have worked with Honoré Noël. He sold some of his clocks through the dealer François Darnault; when the latter’s wife died in 1753 an inventory of her remaining stock included seven clocks, of which six were by Jouard. Today examples of his superb craftsmanship can be found in the Cleveland Museum of Art as well as Château de Versailles. • Literature: Pierre Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle, 1997, p. 91, pl. F, illustrating a very similar clock with bracket signed on the dial Etne Baillon à Paris, the case likewise stamped with a crowned C, with additional surmounting foliage, below which the case is of almost identical design except that it has only one dragon which is in a slightly different position. And p. 119, pl. C, illustrating a clock lacking the lower bracket which is identical to the present model and, significantly, is signed Saint-Germain; the dial being signed D. Robert l’Aîné à La Chaux-de-Fonds.