Chased and gilt bronze liseuse clock (dent and accident), matt and burnished, depicting a woman dressed à l'Antique seated in an armchair reading by the light of an oil lamp, the white enameled circular dial with Arabic numerals in black signed Blanc Fils Palais Royal (chips and hair), resting on a sea-green marble quadrangular base with four feet (stamp missing). Empire period. Height 33 cm - Width 29 cm - Depth 14 cm Note: Blanc Fils, clockmaker, worked at this address from 1806 to 1810. The original design of our clock was deposited by Jean-André Reiche (1752-1817), bronzemaker and designer, at the Bibliothèque Impériale on February 19, 1805. Several similar clocks are listed, including one delivered in 1806 for the Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Italy at the Château de Fontainebleau, in Monsieur Albini's room. Bibliography: -Jean Pierre Samoyault, Pendules et bronzes d'ameublement entrés [à Fontainebleau] sous le premier Empire, figure 15 page 58. -Pierre Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la pendule française, les Éditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 1997, p.398. -H. Ottomeyer Amp; P. Pröschel, "Vergoldete Bronzen", Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 374, fig. 5.15.2. Expert appraisal by Cédric HENON - 06 95 34 93 78 - cedric.henon@authenticite.fr