Both dials and movement signed Janvier, movement numbered. DIM. 33.5 x 18.5 x 16.5 cm. This very elegant and sophisticated clock is characteristic of the work of the famous horloger Antide Janvier (1751-1835). Janvier's reputation was built partly due to the development of the so-called "audience" clock. It is perhaps because of his liking for the short-lived "Revolutionary" decimal time system that he was able to make "audience" clocks so successfully. His experience at making clocks which combined both decimal and standard time in the same mechanism requiring the making of special wheel trains had already been devised by him and was therefore easily transferred to the making of these clocks. Whilst Janvier's "audience" clocks had nothing to do with the Revolutionary decimal time system which had ceased in 1795 after 18 months, the manufacturing principal was conveniently adaptable and in the case of "audience" clocks requiring a minute hand that revolved every 10-minutes and at the same time an hour display revolving in the usual 12-hours. An audience clock, as its name suggests, was intended to be used for measuring the time granted for an audience with a lawyer or high-ranking government official, usually ten minutes, during which the supplicant had to present his case. The case is of the present clock is very high quality and is likely to have been made by Jean-Ferdinand Schwerdfeger (1734-1818). A former cabinetmaker to Marie-Antoinette, he quickly became the preferred supplier to Antide Janvier. Upon the death of Schwerdfiger's wife, the inventory of his studio mentions at least eight cases intended for Janvier. Literature: This clock is illustrated and described in "Antide Janvier - His Life Through his Work", Michel Hayard, 2011, p. 273.