69,000 CHF
Leonard Bury à Basle, circa 1660. Very fine and rare silver, moon phase astronomical pre-balance spring calendar watch with alarm. Double body, bassine with split bezel and loose-ring pendant, entirely pierced and engraved with inhabited foliage. Small silver eccentric chapter ring with Roman numerals, centred with the silver alarm setting disc, subsidiary dials for the date with inner aperture for days of the week with their corresponding planet symbols and the lunar calendar with inner moon phase aperture. Blued steel hand. Gilt brass dial-plate with month aperture, fully engraved with strawberry flowers. Hingedilt brass full plate with turned baluster pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement with steel two-arm balance without spring, worm-and-wheel set-up with pierced blued steel brackets and silver regulator disc, gilt brass florally pierced and engraved cock secured by a screw.Signed on the back plate.Diam. 49 mm. Notes Pre-balance spring calendar watches made in Switzerland are fairly rare, even more so when also fitted with an alarm train.Leonard Bury (Burry) IBorn June 16, 1663, son of Jacob IV, died June 6, 1706. Journeyman in France and Geneva. Considered to be the founder of the tradition of watchmaking in Basel, and therefore one of its most important watchmakers. The combination of astronomical calendar work with an alarm is most unusual.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2000-04-02
