HANGING SQUELETTE IN LYRE, LOUIS XVI Era, circa 1785-1790in bronze gilded with mercury, the dial known as annular, enamelled white with black numerals, Roman for the hours and Indian for the quarters and days of the month, encircled by a frieze of pearls. Two gilded brass hands, known as broken, the shorter one, the hour hand, was at its tip mutilated by the revolution of the windings of its fleur-de-lys. The large hand, in blackened steel, to indicate the dates and months of the Gregorian calendar, the other, slightly shorter, in blackened steel, known as the "second hand", beats the second. The lens balance with a masked Phoebus Apollo lens, smiling in a radiant surround. The movement striking at the passage of the hours and the half on a stamp. The dial is inscribed in a stylised lyre, edged with mouldings of twisted pearls or gadroons and surmounted by a knot, resting on two plinths surmounted by spinning tops and supported by four small bell feet. Rectangular base in white Carrara marble. Signed under the Couture A Paris dial. A Louis XVI lyra shaped skeleton clock, circa 1785-1790.TOP. 43 CM - LARG. 19 CM - PROF. 13.5 CM - 16 7/8 X 7 1/2 X 5 1/4 IN.