CIRCA 1795, THE DIALS BY DUBUISSON, THE CASE POSSIBLY BY PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE

Etienne Gobin, known as Dubuisson (d. circa 1822), watch and clock enameler, worked at Chantilly and Sèvres as a flower painter. He is later recorded in the rue de la Huchette in the 1790s before moving to rue de la Calandre around 1812.
The superb bronzes of this unusual double-sided clock can possibly attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843), the foremost bronzier of the end of the ancien régime and the Empire period. Two remarkable brule-parfums attributed to Thomire, one in the British Royal Collection, Windsor Castle (in the State Dining Room), and one sold from the Wildenstein Collection, Christie's, London, 14 December 2005, lot 73, feature the same distinctive mounts of two snarling dogs flanking a cockerel (perhaps emblematic of France confronting its enemies in the Napoleonic wars), while Bacchic goats also feature frequently in Thomire's oeuvre.