92,500 CHF
PASSEMENT - IMPORTANT LOUIS XV TELLURIAN ORRERY CLOCK Invanté par Passemant Ingenieur du Roy au Louvre A Paris. Made circa 1765. Highly important and extremely rare, painted and gilt-wood, two-week going, hour and half-hour striking table clock with Tellurian Orrery showing relative motions of the Sun, Earth and Moon with an option for manual demonstration. Circular, pale green painted, the side with three hinged curved glazed doors separated by gilt wood columns, front with the clock within a carved gilt wood laurel-leaf frame, molded base, four molded feet, octagonal gilt molded top. Notes This Orrery clock is a very rare surviving example made for the court of Louis XV. The movement and fully signed Orrery movement are of very good quality, the clock geared to drive the Orrery. The combination of highly decorative case and technically complicated scientifi c instrument shows that this impressive piece was intended for display both as an object d’art and for serious scientifi c study in the home of a very rich and probably aristocratic patron. Exhibited: Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 1932. Provenance : The Beyer Museum, Zurich. Sold Antiquorum, Geneve, The Private Collection of Theodor Beyer, November 16th, 2003, lot 23. Passemant – “The King’s Engineer” C. S. Passemant was evidently a very advanced clockmaker and specialized in highly unusual and complicated clocks with astronomical complications. A clock made by Passemant for Louis XV for Versailles between 174
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2012-05-13
