AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY GILT AND SILVERED BRONZE AND ROUGE MARBLE FIGURAL CLOCK GARNITURE BY CHARPENTIER & CIEthe clock decorated with a figure of Cupid reclining and holding a lyre, leaning against the arched case and raised on a marble plinth with gilt bronze mounts, the white enamelled dial with Roman numerals and Arabic five minute markers, signed to the centre 'CHARPENTIER & CIE BRONZIERS PARIS RUE CHARLOT 8', the twin train movement striking on a bell and stamped 'CHARPENTIER FT DE BRONZES A PARIS 174', with pendulum, the garniture candelabra with baluster bodies decorated with a continuous band of dancing maidens, issuing six branches centred by a straight seventh, all with squat nozzles, hung with gilt chains hung with orbs, the central nozzle surmounted by a candle snuffer surmounted by a model of a stork, the clock 46cm high x 60cm wide, the candelabra 77cm high (3) This exceptional clock can be dated to between 1860 when the firm was based at 8 Rue Charlot, and 1870 when they became known as Lemerle-Charpentier & Cie. Widely considered to be one of the most reputable firms of bronziers in Paris, the firm manufactured a 'Grande Horloge' (monumental bronze clock) from a design by Frederic-Eugene Piat that was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 3 November 1999, lot 514 ($222,500). They participated in the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878, exhibiting clocks as well as other decorative works of art. A rouge Griotte marble and gilt bronze figural clock garniture by Lemerle-Charpentier was sold at Bonhams, London, 25 November 2009, lot 230 for £28,000.