The plinth-supported clock with porphyry lid is conceived as a bacchic 'sacred urn'. The tripod supports with ram-hoof, voluted vine-festooned capitals, central Pythian serpent and its 'Athenienne' form relate to a perfume-burner thought to have been manufactured in the 1770s at the duc d'Aumont's Hôtel des Menus Plaisirs under the direction of Augustin Bocciardi and with mounts chased by Pierre Gouthiére (d.1813/14; see: F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, no. F.292, pp. 143-144 and
pl.84). A chimneypiece designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and supplied by Gouthière in 1771 for the salon in Madame du Barry's pavilion at Louveciennes uses the same iconography with its Athenienne-enriched columns and serpent (see: J. Whitehead, The French Interior in the Eighteenth Century, London, 1992, p. 109)