Paulus Radzinski

Paulus Radzinski, Vratislauie (Wroclaw), circa 1755. Very fine silver pair-cased, quarter-repeating, petite sonnerie striking coach watch with alarm and date. Outer: double-body, chagrin-covered, with sound holes and silver studwork. Inner: double-body, pierced and engraved with foliage and flowers. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer Arabic minutes, aperture at 6 o’clock for date, another at 3 o’clock for setting the alarm. Gold "Louis XV" hands. 81 mm., hinged, gilded full plate brass with baluster hexagonal pillars, fusee with chain for the going train, worm-wheel set-up, verge escapement, plain three-arm brass balance, flat balance spring, fine continental gilded brass cock pierced and engraved with foliage. Trip-activated repeating train, repeating, striking and alarm trains with gilded fixed barrels engraved with leaf decoration, striking on a bell. Signed on the back plate. Diam. Outer case 125 mm., inner case 111 mm. Notes Paulus (Pawel) Radzinski was born in Warsaw around 1730. In 1751 he finished his apprenticeship in Warsaw and by 1760 had opened his own shop in Wroclaw (Breslau). This clock and one other table clock are the only two clocks known by him. His sons Józef and Piotr continued in their father’s footsteps, expanding the shop and becoming, under the name J.P. Radzinski fils, not only makers but also important retailers of clocks imported from France and Germany.