71,300 CHF
(Charles) Le Bon, Paris, circa 1710. Exceptional and very important "Tête de Poupée" gilt bronze 8 day going hour- and half hour-striking coach and table clock with a provision for choosing the pendulum or the balance. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track with five-minute Arabic markers, inner quarter-hour division, winding apertures. Blued steel "fleur-de-lis" hands. brass, following the shape of the case, baluster pillars, fusee and chain for the going train with its barrel in the lower part, going barrel for the striking, verge escapement, 4-arm brass balance, blued steel flat balance spring, amethyst endstone, small bob pendulum set on a pivoted lever with silk sspension and Huygens cycloidal cheeks, very clever mechanism lifting and blocking pendulum when in balance mode, when in pendulum mode (crutch acting on fixed pin at the balance rim) triggering balance amplitude limiting device, pierced and engraved double-footed gilded cock, count wheel on the back plate, striking on a single bell set at the top. Signed on case and movement. Dim. Height 27 cm., base width 14 cm. Notes The clock has a very unusual and ingenious mechanism allowing it to work as a pendulum clock when stationary on a table, or as a balance clock when traveling. The concept involves setting a pin on the balance rim and an unusual and very clever lifting, blocking and amplitude-controlling contrivance described above.The shape and size of the clock would suggest it is a trav
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2003-04-12
