Isaac Thuret

Isaac Thuret, A Paris, circa 1690. Very rare and fine ebonized early balance spring hour and half hour striking traveling clock. Lyre-shaped with molded base and top, surmounted by a bell, hinged back door. Lyre-shaped gilt brass, applied silver ring with champlevé radial Roman numerals, inner quarter-hour division and outer minutes from 1 to 60, regulator sector aperture at the top for the balance spring, decorated with floral engraving. Blued steel “Louis XIV” hands. Lyre-shaped, brass, baluster pillars, going barrels for going and striking trains, verge escapement, large three-arm steel balance, blued steel two-turn flat balance spring, two-footed plain gilt brass cock, brass count wheel on the back plate with blued steel “tulip” hand. Signed on dial. Dim. Height 34 cm, base width 15 cm. Notes When Huygens invented the balance spring in 1675 he choose Thuret to implement it in a timepiece with his pirouette verge escapement. Therefore it is not surprising to find so early a clock with balance and balance spring made by Thuret. Seventeenth century traveling clocks, precursors of carriage clocks, are very rare, and only a very few are known to have survived. These are mostly French, though some English ones, including one by Tompion, are known.