Dumont Freres à Besançon

Dumont Freres à Besançon, circa 1690. Fine and very rare leather-covered gilt brass single-hand oignon watch, wound through the center. Two-body, oignon, covered in leather and tooled in gold with elaborate rosette, bezel tooled in gold withrepeated pattern. White enamel cartouches in relief with bold radial Roman numerals, inner quarter-hour divi-sions,center chased with exotic birds and foliage. Blued steel hand. 46 mm, hinged,gilt full plate withEgyptian pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement with steel balance and short balance spring, large oignontype cock pierced and engraved with stylized foliage.Signed on the movement.Diam. 57 mm. Notes Dumont Frères Claude-Guillemin Dumont served his apprenticeship in Paris and London. He traveled to Besançon in 1693, becoming a resident in 1697. He and his brother Pierre-François made the "horloge de l’hôpital" in 1704. They maintained the city’s clocks up until 1722. They made the clock of the "maison de Bellevaux" in 1726. Their signatures were as fol-lows: Dumont à Besançon; Les Frères Dumont à Besançon; Dumont frères à Besançon. A watch signed "Les Frères Dumont à Besançon", from circa 1690-1700 is in the Musée de Besançon.