32,200 CHF
N. Lesueur à Gisors, circa 1640. Very fine and large early silver clock-watch with alarm. Double body, bassine, with split bezel and loose-ring pendant, the back engraved with summer flowers in relief on a matted ground, with florally pierced and engraved band. Gilt-brass chapter-ring with Roman numerals, inner silver alarm setting disc, engraved with a small landscape. Blued-steel hand and pointer. Silver dial plate engraved with scrolled foliage. Hinged gilt brass full plate with urn pillars, fusee with gut-line, verge escapement, plain steel twoarm balance without spring, irregular florally pieced and engraved cock secured by a pin, ratchet wheel set-up with matching gilt brass click and blued-steel spring. Striking train with florally pierced fixed barrel and engraved count-wheel on the back plate. Striking and alarm on a bell. Signed on the back plate. In very good condition. Diam. 70 mm. Notes No apparent records for the exact dates of this maker have as yet been found, although a Louis Lesueur is recorded in Rouen in 1663. As Gisors is only some 50 kilometers east of Rouen, there may well have been a family working in the arec. Indeed, there are records of several makers who were granted their mastership in Rouen, belonged to the Guild there, but lived and worked in Gisors. The engraving of the case seems to be modelled on one of the anonymous XVIIth century designs for watchmakers, published in E. Gelis : L' Horlogerie Ancienne, Paris 1949, p. 13.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
1993-11-14