A FRENCH GILT BRASS 'JAPONESQUE' MANTEL TIMEPIECETHE MOVEMENT STAMPED FOR VICTOR ATHANASE-PIERRET, CIRCA 1880The circular single train eight-day movement with tic-tac escapement regulated by integral short-bob pendulum, the backplate with arched lower margin and stamped with oval trademark VAP,. BREVETE, S.G.D.G. to backplate, the twelve-piece Arabic enamel cartouche numeral dial with winged female term and scroll cast brass centre and blued steel hands set behind fixed bevel-glazed bezel, the case modelled as an elaborate oriental gong stand with grotesque mask centred stylised strapwork scroll-pierced arch over the fish-scale decorated drum housing the movement surmounted by a pair of dragons, flanked by decorative cast square section columns over a trestle type base with elaborate scroll-pierced apron panel flanked by conforming openwork brackets, set on a cruciform-ended platform further decorated with a pierced apron to front.41cm (16.25ins) high, 30.5cm (12ins) wide, 10cm (4ins) deep.Victor Athanase-Pierret is recorded in Loomes, Brian Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, 21st Century edition, as born in 1806 and died in 1893. He worked in Paris and invented lamp clocks with turning globes marked with hour figures in 1863. Tardy in Dictionnaire des Horlogers Francais notes that he was born in Bucy-les-Pierrepont and apprenticed at age 13 to a maker named Rolin, stayed there 5 years, then moved to Paris. He exhibited at the London Exposition in 1851 where he presented 'une pendule planetaire' (an orrery), he also published a volume titled Horlogerie, outillage et mecanique in 1885.