A white marble and ormolu clock called "à la Montgolfière", illustrating Charles and Robert in their basket. The amounts in fluted column rest on an oval terrace underlined by an openwork gallery and a row of pearls. A flowering vase on the cushion. Ornamentation of chased and gilded bronzes. White enamel dial with Arabic numerals signed " Briant à Paris ". Louis XVI style, composed of old elements. (Elements detached, missing bronzes of ornaments, some bronzes reported). Movement signed " Planchon à Paris ". Height : 47 cm. Width : 29 cm. Depth : 17,5 cm. The clock we present is very close to the one auctioned in Switzerland (Koller, June 22, 2006, lot 1209) and to the one auctioned in Paris (Ader, March 27, 2013, lot 90, Hôtel Drouot, room 1). Several variants of the Montgolfière clocks are known, among them the clock known as "au ballon et au chapeau tombé", illustrating the ascent of the physicist Charles and the younger of the Robert brothers over one of the basins of the royal garden of the Tuileries on December 1, 1783. A clock of this model, signed Robin, is illustrated in La Pendule française, H.L. Tardy, Paris, 1961-64, tome II, page 294; and also in Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle, by Pierre Verlet, Paris, 1987, page 121 (fig. 156). Bibliography : - F. Villadier, A. Degardin, Des Ballons pour la République, Exhibition catalog, Orangerie de Meudon, 16 November - 26 November 1989, Meudon, 1989. - H.L. Tardy, La Pendule française, tome II (Du Louis XVI à nos jours), Paris, 1961-64. - P. Kjellberg, La Pendule française du Moyen-âge au XXe siècle, Paris, 1998. - P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1987.