Le Blond L'aine

Le Blond L'aine, a Paris, No. 405, circa 1785. Very rare and interesting gilt brass pendant watch with special escapement and date. Two-body, "Louis XVI", glazed on both sides, engraved with repeated pattern. 33 mm, gilt brass, fixed barrel with skeletonized cover in five-arm star, 3-wheel train, Sully type frictional rest escapement, three-arm balance placed vertically to the plate, blued steel flat balance spring.Signed on the movement.Diam. 40 mm. Notes Sully invented this escapement around 1736. As he wrote, it is a "frictional rest escapement, in which the action of the escape wheel takes the weight of the balance and reduces the friction on the end of the pivot that carries it, which happens in no other watch". He placed the balance perpendicular to the plates, which meant that it was vertical when carried upright in the pocket, and thus the bottom pivot of the balance staff was relieved of much of the friction during transportation and use. The advantages of this design for pocket watches had already been propounded by Sully in his work "Règle artificielle du temps" and given practical application by Verlinden, with a frictional rest escapement in a watch made circa 1770-1775. Le Roy used this escapement in his first deck watches, claiming: "with regard to friction, I have considerably minimized it in the seconds indication which is different from others...I would refer you to my memoir read to the Academy in 1764 on a new way of indicating seconds and to