An extremely fine Empire gilt bronze and grey veined black marble chariot clock of eight day duration, the white enamel chapter ring with black Roman numerals and pierced palmetted centre with blued steel moon hands for the hours and minutes set within the wheel of a chariot. The movement with anchor escapement, silk thread suspension, striking on the hour and half hour, with outside count wheel. The magnificent case representing ‘Le Char de Venus’ attributed to André-Antoine Ravrio portraying the figure of a seated Venus supporting a dove, symbol of love, upon her left knee and looking over her shoulder toward Adonis dressed as a shepherd who holds a crook in his right hand and rests his other on Venus’s shoulder, at his feet a dog, symbol of fidelity, Venus leaning against a tasselled cushion in her magnificent chariot with a winged female to the back and female mask head to the prow and driven by the standing figure of Cupid who holds reins attached to a pair of swans, attributes of Venus, who pull the chariot along, the whole on a shaped rectangular marble plinth mounted at centre with a pair of crowned arrow-pierced interlinking hearts within a foliate swag held by a pair of doves, the central mount flanked by scenes of Cupid grinding his arrows and working at an anvil, on squat gadrooned toupee feet Paris, date circa 1810 Height 44 cm, width 61 cm, depth 17 cm. Literature: Ernest Dumonthier, “Les Bronzes du Mobilier National, Pendules et Cartels”, 1911, pl. 39, illustrating an almost identical clock of the same measurements but with differing chapter ring and central frieze mount of a swan on a tazza in place of hearts, which the author notes as being from a composition attributed to Ravrio and in 1809 was in the cabinet de travail of the Emperor Napoleon at the Palais de L’Elysée. Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 354, pl. 5.9.1, illustrating an identical clock by André-Antoine Ravrio in the Musée National du Château de Malmaison, 1809. Tardy, “Les Plus Belles Pendules Françaises”, 1994, p. 276, illustrating an almost identical clock, as illustrated in Dumonthier, which is noted as being from a composition by Ravrio of which there are examples in the Palais de L’Elysée and Ministère de la Guerre. Jean-Dominique Augarde, “Les Ouvriers du Temps”, 1996, p. 144, pl. 109, illustrating the identical clock the Musée National du Château de Malmaison. Elke Niehüser, “Die Französische Bronzeuhr”, 1997, p. 243, pl. 929, illustrating an almost identical clock. The identical clock in the Musée National du Château de Malmaison is presumed to have been among the furnishings of Madame Mère at the hôtel de Brienne; in addition to that and the near example in the Palais de L’Elysée another was in the Tuileries in 1807. Maréchal Michel Ney, Prince of Moskowa (1769-1815), who Napoleon described as ‘the bravest of the brave’, also owned a clock of the same model which was housed in the salon of his private apartments on the first floor of his hôtel. André-Antoine Ravrio’s (1759-1814) celebrated oeuvre included a number of chariot clocks. One of the greatest French bronziers of his day, Ravrio was a highly successful businessman and an exceptionally gifted artist and designer. Having attended the Académie, he trained as a fondeur under his father André and on Pierre-Philippe Thomire’s recommendation was introduced to the comte d’Artois, 1774. Three years later he was received as a maître-fondeur and afterwards joined J-B Disnematin-Dorat, a Parisian doreur-argenteur, whose business he succeeded. Though Ravrio enjoyed success during Louis XVI’s reign, he achieved far greater fame under Napoleon who appointed him his chief bronzier and for whom he supplied numerous bronzes for his Imperial palaces including the Tuileries, Fontainebleau, Saint-Cloud, Versailles, Compiègne and Rambouillet. Ravrio also worked for the Quirinal in Rome, Monte-Cavallo, for Stupinigi near Turin, King Ludwig of Holland and other notable figures.