Mantel Clock with the Figure of Clotho

Vaillant made the internal mechanism for this clock and signed the face of its dial. The case, manufactured after another artist’s design, features one of the Moirai (Fates) from Greek mythology: Clotho, who spins the thread of life. This neoclassical depiction of the deity, shown crossing her legs and turning to the right, derives from Italian baroque examples. The natural elements in the rest of the iconography unite the theme of time with the cycle of life. A clock with this identical case, with a movement by a different clockmaker, once graced the bedroom of Napoleon’s son, the king of Rome, and is currently housed in the Élysée Palace in Paris. A variant of this case by another artist was also produced in blue-and-white ceramic, with gilded bronze details.