Romantic clock depicting Virginia on the ship bringing her back to Île de France

An interesting romantic clock in gilt and silvered bronze depicting Virginia returning from France on a ship caught in a violent storm. She wears a beautiful lace-embroidered dress, a headdress, and a veil around her shoulders. A small treasure chest floats in the waves. The white enamel dial, encircled by gilt bronze reeds, has Roman numerals for the hours. The openwork hands are decorated with flowering branches and trefoils. The whole rests on a high base, plated with shells and leafy scrolls, and on a foot formed by four scrolls adorned with foliage and gadrooned leaves. In the center is the head of Neptune, god of the sea, depicted as a bearded man with long hair. Paul and Virginia, a novel written by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre in 1787, tells the story of two children living on the Île de France (Mauritius). Although they come from two different families, they are raised as brother and sister. In their adolescence, romantic feelings blossom between the two characters. Madame de Tour, Virginie's mother, then decides to send her to study in Paris. A few years later, Virginie announces her return to the island, but the ship bringing her back from France is caught in a storm and wrecked on the rocks, causing Paul immense grief. He soon succumbs to the pain of losing his beloved. The success of this love story with its tragic ending was immense at the end of the 18th century. The subject was taken up by Romantic artists, both in painting and in the decorative arts. Restoration period, circa 1830. Dimensions: W: 35cm, D: 12cm, H: 50cm.