Pendule LXVI with “Phase de Lune”

A beautiful Louis XVI gilt-bronze mantel clock with a white marble mount, eight-day operation, signed on the white enamel dial Arthaults Le Jeune à Paris, dial with an outer minute ring marked with black Arabic numerals 5/10/15 etc. with red intermediate markers, an inner minute ring with black Roman numerals and then an additional inner calendar ring with rare red Arabic numerals for the 31 days of the month, centered by a semi-circular lunar dial shaped with a grisaille moon against a blue sky studded with gold stars marked around with the 29 1/2 days of the lunar calendar and above it: "Phases de Lune", with a very fine pair of gilt-brass hour and minute hands and blued steel hands for the calendar indications. Lever escapement movement, silk-thread suspension, striking on the hour and half-hour on a single bell, with an external tally wheel. The white marble case with a beaded dial, set on a pedestal, surmounted by a bouquet of roses and foliage with the standing figure of a semi-draped Venus to the right and to the left a winged Cupid with a quiver of arrows hanging from his back and his arrow on the ground beside him, the figures and dial drum on a contoured rectangular base with rounded ends, with a gilt-bronze beaded border above and carved on the front and sides with foliate scrolls within panels with a beaded border. France. Period: 66th. H x W x D: 41 x 27 x 12 cm.