Joseph-Lonard Roque, maître in 1770.

Roque was apprenticed to the mechanical expert Alexis Magny and later the celebrated horloger Claude-Simon Passement. He was responsible for the movement for the 'Creation of the World' Clock delivered by Passement to Louis XV in 1754, and also the pair of globes supplied to the marquis de Marigny, who later presented them to the King. After achieving his maîtrise, Roque made a specialty of the production of luxury clocks, employing bronziers such as Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain and François Vion for his cases and François Rémond as a gilder. His clients included Louis XV, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Mesdames Victoire and Adelaide, the daughters of Louis XV, as well as collectors such as the duc de Polignac and M. Beaujon.

A design for a mantel clock of this form, dating circa 1780, is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 253, fig. 4.6.29. Twin obelisks suspending a drum-form clock case were a particularly popular form of mantel clock during the last half of the eighteenth century. See, for example, two such marble mantel clocks with ormolu military trophy mounts illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Encyclopedie de la Pendule Francaise du Moyen Age au XXe Sicle, Paris, 1997, p. 205-206, figs. D & G. From this, it appears that some of the earliest examples were made of marble, though the present clock, made of porcelain, represents a popular alternative. Further examples executed in porcelain include one at the Musée du Nouveau Monde de La Rochelle (inv. no. MNM.1983.5.1), as well as one preserved in Mrs. Bambridge's Bedroom at Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 (NT 207159). From these two instances, it appears that the later pendulum to the present clock is consistent in design with other examples of the type.