This exceptional Louis XVclock is attributed to the sculptor and decorator, Leon Message, active in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Made of gilded bronze, this piece adopts the forms of the eighteenth century. Indeed, the arabesques, and decorative vocabulary, are characteristic of the rococo style and of a Juste-Aurele Meissonier, leader of this movement. The clock stands on four winding feet, that suppor themselves on a shelf, in the style of Louis XV decorative clocks. The decorative motifs consist of an inverted shell, foliage and coils, are also specific to the rococo style through their asymmetric treatment, the abundance and decorative character somewhat extravagant. Moreover, the term 'rococo' means, originally, artificial caves, which contained imitations of shells. The abundance of curved lines and the relatively pronounced fantasy of the ensemble are from the eighteenth century. Similarly, the rockery used a lot of grotesque, which is well illustrated here by the presence of a mask of a bearded man crowned with laurel, beneath the clock face. From both sides of this grotesque are dolphins, a motif which one often finds in the works of Léon Messagé. The clock face is surrounded by garlands of leaves lined with flowers, which bloom in the upper part of the clock, giving birth to a small horn on which sits a Cupid, holding his bow in his left hand and wearing his quiver on his back.
