Clock known as "à la petite Prudence

Lot 171 - Clock known as "à la petite Prudence
Made of marble and chased and gilded bronze, this clock represents the allegory of Prudence in the form of a woman dressed in the antique style, stretched out and leaning on a fluted post supporting the dial. In her right hand she holds a mirror in which she looks at herself, while a snake is wrapped around her left hand.
The whole rests on a pedestal framed by an amate border decorated with two rosettes. A woman's head surrounded by garlands of foliage decorates its center. This base rests on a marble counter-socle decorated with chased and gilded bronzes such as a frieze of leafy post with a shell in the center and small toupie feet.
The movement is marked MEYER.
From a drawing by Antoine FOULLET (1710-1775), His drawing dated 1763, appears in the Livre de dessins de pendules, published around 1765 under the title " Pièce de bureau, petite prudence, Foulet, couleur 275 livres, dorure 187 livres, prix dorée 462 livres " preserved in the Doucet Library and signed by the founder Pierre Antoine Foullet, with the inscription " Pièce de Bureau petite prudence ".
Restoration of use and maintenance
18th century period
Dimensions: H 33; W 30; D 9 cm
Comparable examples in current collections:
Pavlovsk Castle, in the antechamber of the "Grand Duke" or Secretary Room (inv. No. 1389 - IV)
Louvre Museum (inv. N° OA 6625)
Collection of Her Majesty the Queen of England.
An identical clock is also described in the inventory after the death in 1772 of Jean-Baptiste Baillon, Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire of the Dauphine Marie-Antoinette.