29,900 CHF
Dumas, Elève du Gouvernement, No. 21, circa 1840. Very fine and extremely rare silver and gold pocket chronometer made under the direction of Henri Motel, with original ratchet key. Four-body, forme quatre baguettes, by Jules Perot (Master mark), with gold rims, engine-turned back and ribbed band. Hinged silver cuvette. White enamel with radial Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds. Blued steel Breguet hands. 22’’’, gilt brass bar caliber with going barrel, Louis Berthoud type pivoted detent escapement, cut bimetallic two-arm compensation balance with poising and timing screws, free-sprung blued steel helical balance spring with terminal curves. Signed on the cuvette. Diam. 58 mm. Notes A very fine example of a French pocket chronometer made by a pupil of Auguste Louis Berthoud, Louis Berthoud’s grandson and nephew of Henri Motel. This caliber, of which only two examples are known, has the particularity of allowing an unobstructed view of the extremely fine Louis Berthoud pivoted detent escapement, usually set between plates. This chronometer is almost identical to the pocket chronometer No. 271 by Henri Motel. Both chronometers are described and illus-trated in: J.-C. Sabrier, "La Longitude en mer à l’heure de Louis Berthoud et de Henri Motel", Antiquorum Editions, Geneva, 1993, p. 622, fig. 169 and 170. Onésime Dumas (1824-1889). Was Louis Berthoud’s grandson and the nephew of Henri Motel. He was placed by the Government, in 1837, as pupil to Louis-Frédéric Perrelet
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2002-10-19
