17,400 CHF
Robin Escapement Lepaute, H. ger de l’Empereur, a Paris, No. 1794. Dated June 1810. Very fine and extremely rare, quarter-repeating, silver and gold pocket watch with Robin escapement. Four-body, silver, “forme collier”, gold bezel and rim, No. 3061, mastermark JBM, the back engine-turned with a sunray pattern, fluted band. Hinged silver cuvette. White enamel by Lucard, Breguet numerals, outer minute track and Arabic 15-minute numerals. Blued steel Breguet hands. 54 mm., matte gilt, cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, the barrel with detachable bridge, maintaining power, Robin escapement with visible brass escape wheel, steel lever with banking post projecting into a hole in the backplate, three-arm brass balance, blued steel flat balance spring, bimetallic temperature compensation curb on the index regulator, fan-shaped balance cock with ruby endstone, repeating on flat gongs activate by depressing the pendant, repeat remontoire spring with exposed barrel under a detachable bridge. Dial, cuvette and movement signed. Diam. 60 mm. Notes Robert Robin (1741-1799) became Marchand-Horloger Privilégié du Roi on 22 October 1763 and resigned on 13 September 1765 in favor of Jean-Pierre Courtois. In 1778 the Académie des Sciences approved two of his inventions, one being an astronomical clock representing a meridian drawn on a pyramid, which the Menus Plaisirs acquired that year for Louis XIV, for 30,000 livres. During the same period he perfected his famous mantel clocks with
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2008-11-16