This gilded bronze clock presenting Julius Caesar standing by a stele bearing the dial is typical of the Empire period when art glorified Napoleon, his victories and the might of his realm. The clean casting and finishing of the bronze figure of Caesar, created from an 1807 sketch by the master of decorative bronze Lucien François Feuchere, make it possible to attribute this work to French craftsmen. The stele is decorated with depictions of Mars the god of war and the goddess Cybele riding a lion as the embodiment of the fruitfulness and prosperity of peaceful life. The pediment bears a bas-relief entitled The Triumph of the Commander. Feuchere produced a clock of this type for Napoleon's apartments in the Compiègne palace. The clock was purchased for the Winter Palace before 1811 from Jean-Pierre Lancry, a shop-owner who set up workshops in St Petersburg producing items of interior decoration including artistic bronze.