CHARLES LE ROY, PARIS, CIRCA 1780, THE CASE AFTER A DESIGN BY FRANÇOIS VION

Queen Marie-Antoinette's clock of this model, popularly known as 'L'amour offrant un oiseau à l'Amitié', 'La Pleureuse' or 'Le Retour de l'amour', was displayed at the Palace of Versailles' Trianon and has a movement by Louis XVI's court clockmaker Robert Robin. Another was listed in 1777 in the Palais du Temple's apartments of the comte d'Artois, later Charles X, and has a movement by Lepaute. The clock design is preserved at the Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris, in an album of watercolours assembled by the fondeur-ciseleur François Vion (maître in 1764). This design featured again in the Livre de desseins no. 31, when it was inscribed with Vion's name and priced at 450 livres (see H. Ottomeyer/P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen,Vol. I, Munich, 1986, p. 247).