The Balthazar dynasty of horlogers is first recorded in the late 17th Century and flourished well into the 19th Century. The movement of this clock is by Henri-Charles dit Charles Balthazar, elected maître in 1717, and first recorded in Place Dauphine in 1733. One of the most famous of his family, 'Horloger de Mesdames Filles de France', he used clock cases by B. Lieutaud, J.J. de St-Germain, A. Foullet and J. Goyer, and supplied movements to the ébénistes J. Dubois and J.F. Oeben. Among his clients were the Garde-Meuble Royal and the ambassador of Russia.
The pearl-wreathed clock, supported by a bacchic lion, is surmounted by a medallion-bearing 'Nike' a winged figure in celebration of love's triumph. The original design of this clock is due to the fondeurs-ciseleurs Franois Vion and Pierre-Antoine Foullet, now preserved in the Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris, and illustrated by H Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, I, p. 193, fig. 3.11.6. Another clock supported by a horse, also from a design of Vion and surmounted by the same pattern of 'Nike' figure bearing a medallion of Louis XVI, was advertised in Apollo, December 1974.
Two related clocks were sold at Sotheby's Monaco, from the Château de la Treyne, 26-27 May 1980, lot 1226 and 1227, whilst another clock was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 10 December 1992, lot 77.