Rare "skeleton" clock in chased or knurled gilt bronze, enamel and white and black marble; it features three dials, the main one showing the hours in Arabic numerals, the minutes in increments of fifteen and the revolutionary date; it also indicates the revolutionary months. The upper dial shows the date of the moon through a window; the lower dial shows the solstices and equinoxes. These dials are set in an arched frame with enameled gold stars on a blue background, signed "Lecomte à Paris". Rectangular base with pearl frieze and panels, the front panel depicting putti framing an altar; small toupee feet. The enameled decoration is attributed to Joseph Coteau (1740-1801). Convention-Directoire period. H : 54 - W : 28 - D : 15.5 cm. The 18th century in France was probably the most imaginative period in the European decorative arts. Indeed, there was an exceptional renewal of shapes and motifs, and the invention of new models previously absent from the aesthetic repertoire or virtually never used. Particularly in the second half of the century, craftsmen demonstrated a rare creativity in the creation of clocks with increasingly sophisticated compositions, often incorporating movements designed by the best Parisian master watchmakers of the time. The "skeleton" clock model was created in this particular context, allowing the complexity of the mechanisms to be revealed to the public and emphasizing the elegance of the deliberately pared-down compositions, often consisting solely of a frame supporting the dial(s). For the most luxurious examples, these frames were covered with more or less refined enamel decoration by the most talented Parisian enamellers of the time, notably Dubuisson or Merlet, and particularly Joseph Coteau, to whom we attribute the enamel decoration on the clock we are proposing. Among the few other known examples made in the same spirit, let us mention: a first clock, signed "Bruel à Paris", reproduced in G. et A. Wannenes, Les plus belles pendules françaises, de Louis XVI à l'Empire, Florence, 2013, p.299; as well as several models illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la pendule française du Moyen Age au XXe siècle, Paris, 1997, p.319 Last but not least, we should mention a clock of this type in the collections of the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris, formerly the Théodore Reinach collection (published in L. Metman, Le Musée des Arts décoratifs, Le Métal-Le Bronze, Deuxième album, Du milieu du XVIIIe siècle au milieu du XIXe siècle, Paris, plate CIX, n°1041). Joseph Coteau (1740-1801) was the most famous enameller of his time, collaborating with most of the great Parisian watchmakers of the period. He was born in Geneva, where he became master painter-enameller at the Académie de Saint Luc in 1766, and moved to Paris a few years later. From 1772 until the end of his life, he lived in the rue Poupée. Coteau left his name to a precious technique of relief enameling he developed with Parpette for the decoration of certain pieces of Sèvres porcelain, and which he later used to decorate the frames and dials of the most precious clocks; made with this characteristic decoration, let us mention in particular: a covered bowl and its tray that belong to the collections of the Musée national de la Céramique in Sèvres (Inv. SCC2011-4-2); a pair of vases known as "cannelés à guirlandes" in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (published in the exhibition catalog Un défi au goût, 50 ans de création à la manufacture royale de Sèvres (1740-1793), Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1997, p.108, catalog n°61); and a ewer and its bowl known as "de la toilette de la comtesse du Nord" exhibited at the Pavlovsk Palace in St. Petersburg (reproduced in M. Brunet et T. Préaud, Sèvres, Des origines à nos jours, Office du Livre, Fribourg, 1978, p.207, fig.250).