A fine French lacquered brass carriage clock with unusual glass bead highlighted Aesthetic style porcelain panels and push-button repeat Achille Brocot, Paris, circa 1870 The eight-day two train gong striking movement with silvered platform lever escapement and stamped with central AB within a star trademark over serial number 354 to lower left hand corner of the backplate, the rectangular porcelain dial panel overall painted in gilt and silver with butterfly inhabited stylised foliage incorporating toned glass bead applied infill to the wings of each insect, the centre with gilt floral spray within Roman numeral chapter ring and with blued steel hands, the lacquered brass case with ringed baton centred hinged handle over bevelled top glass and cavetto cornice, the angles with ribbed 'quoin' uprights and the sides inset with additional Aesthetic style porcelain panels each matching the dial with glass bead decorated butterfly inhabited stylised flowering foliage within a cream field, on complex cavetto and ogee moulded plinth base, (corner crack to right hand panel), 17cm (6.75ins) high excluding handle. Provenance: The beneficiary of the Estate of a private collector, East Midlands. Achille Brocot is recorded in Allix, Charles and Bonnert, Peter CARRIAGE CLOCKS, Their history and development as born in 1817 and died in 1878. The Museums Victoria (Australia) website notes that Achille patented several improvements in clock mechanism escapements, and invented the 'Brocot Suspension', an adjustable pendulum spring which enabled time keeping to be regulated by altering the length of the pendulum suspension spring by a key turned in the dial. He also introduced a jewelled deadbeat escapement, sometimes called a visible escapement as it was often mounted in the middle of the dial. Achille was awarded a first class medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1855, and in 1856 was appointed Treasurer to La Société des Horlogers in Paris. He published a Calculation of the Wheels by Approximation in 1862. His sons Achille and Paul continued the business following Achille senior's death 1878. The firm was taken over by rival clock maker Gustave Gibaudet in 1889. The porcelain panels of the current lot are unusual in that they incorporate applied clustered coloured glass bead infill to the wings of the butterfies which catches and reflects light in such a way as to bring the insects to life. This is due to the intensity of the reflected light changing as the angle from which the panels are viewed varies, and is particularly effective when lit straight-on by a single source. Two carriage clocks with similarly decorated panels are illustrated in Roberts, Derek CARRIAGE and other Travelling CLOCKS pages 158-59 (Figs 9.55 and 9.56).