PENDULE dite "LE TELEGRAPHE D'AMOUR", bronze from Héricourt, mechanism by Lepaute, the Emperor's watchmaker in Paris. On archive O2 531 d2 , dated October 12, 1813, for delivery to the Palais de Rambouillet, we read: "Chambre à coucher du Roi, une pendule d'architecture à huit colonnes supportant un entablement le tout en bronze forme de portique, surmonté de signes télégraphiques avec deux figures analogues. It stands on a sea-green marble plinth. All the bronzes that decorate it are perfectly gilded, the movement is with striking, escapement with rest, heavy pendulum, knife suspension, cage and base, for the price of 1000 francs". The clock, beneath its blown-glass cage with black wooden base, rests on a sea-green marble plinth with gilded bronze feet adorned with a knurled wheel, from which rise eight gilded bronze columns. Between the columns, gilded children Cupid and Mercury operate the telegraph wheel or reel, corresponding to the very first model invented by Claude Chappe, known as the "Lille telegraph". The scene is repeated on the base of the clock, in a bas-relief frieze. Poseidon has been defeated by technology, and the waves are no longer an obstacle to the transmission of messages of love by telegraph operators on either side of the water's edge. The lovers at the end of the frieze await their messages, fully validating the name given by Héricourt to this model, "Telegraphe d'Amour" (Telegraph of Love). Poseidon, alone, is struck into the corners of the plinth. Above the columns, an entablature supports two confronted gilded swans, framing the movement and enamel dial. At the top of the clock, the telegraph regulator takes the form of a bow and the indicators the shape of arrows in matte-gilded bronze. A quiver of arrows symbolizes the double-notched mast typical of the Lille telegraph system. The Paris movement has a knife-edge suspension, with a half-pin escapement and hour and half-hour chimes on a bell. The white enamel dial with Roman numerals and Arabic quarter markings bears the signature "Lepaute H.r de l'Empereur à Paris". Partridge-eye hands in blued steel. The pendulum is heavily weighted in a lead-filled brass lens and formed by a long burnished steel rod; the fork has a return screw for easy setting of the clock "in its escapement", as Lepaute wrote. The striking and movement springs are dated September 1808 and signed "Lesieur". Overall dimensions: Height: 62.5 cm. Width: 38 cm. Depth: 15 cm. Overall dimensions of the period glass globe: Height: 70.7 cm. Width: 44.7 cm. Depth: 19.3 cm. Provenance: Private collection from Côtes d'Armor, old purchase. Condition : Complete clock in very good box condition, protected by its curved glass cage with stuccoed and gilded edges. Usual and maintenance repairs, one repair on three teeth of the barrel to be redone, an overhaul or curative conservation of the movement recommended. Reservations: No particular reservation, the mechanisms are not guaranteed in their operation. One repair to the striking barrel in 2022. Identical models: To date, only one other identical clock of this model is known. This is the clock similar to the one tendered to Mrs Lepaute Oncle et Neveu, 42 rue Saint Thomas du Louvre. It is described in the book "Pendules du Mobilier national 1800-1870", pages 131 and 132. Similar to the one ordered for the Emperor and King's bedroom at the Imperial Palace in Strasbourg on October 25, 1806. The quotation specifies that "les corps unis sont au vert antique". Delivered on March 9, 1807, payment validated on April 17, 1807. Madame Dupuy-Baylet provides an important detail in her 1810 inventory and detailed description of the Palais Rohan in Strasbourg: "le socle en marbre portor". (Mobilier national, Inv. GML 10687, acquired January 9, 1994). The model currently on deposit at the Mobilier National in Strasbourg bears none of the numbers of either the Garde-Muble or Saint-Cloud, when it was shipped under Louis Philippe. It cannot be ruled out that the model ordered in 1806 perished in the fire of October 13, 1870. The clock currently on display in Strasbourg, on the other hand, historically comes from the Ministry of the Interior. A complete examination of this clock would be most useful historically. It cannot be ruled out that several models were made, but that very few have survived to the present day. Theme models: a few so-called "telegraph clocks" are known; one in the Musée de la Poste in Pari