37,500 CHF
WESTMINSTER CHIMING & GRANDE SONNERIE REPEATING CARRIAGE CLOCK French. Made circa 1890. Fine and extremely rare, gilt-brass and ivory, three-train carriage clock with unusual Westminster Carillon striking on four bells and two gongs, grande sonnerie repeating on gongs and alarm. Accompanied by a fitted case and key. Gilt-brass, multi-piece, “Anglaise” with acanthus leaf decoration, dentilled friezes, glazed four sides and the top, hinged acanthus handle. Ivory with black radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, alarm setting dial below, pierced ivory mask carved with roses over a polished gilt plate. Blued steel halberd hands. Brass rectangular with three going barrels, frosted and silvered platform with straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, fl at balance spring, index regulator, repeating the hours and quarters on two gongs, striking the hours on a gong and Westminster carillon with four hammers on four bells in the base via a pinned cylinder, separate alarm train with a further hammer. Dim. 17 x 10.8 x 9,5 cm., excluding the handle. Notes Westminster Quarters Carriage clocks with Westminster quarters are exceedingly rare, especially with a carillon of bells rather than four gongs which are sometimes seen. The so-called Westminster quarters, familiar to everyone as the chimes of “Big Ben”, are more properly termed “Cambridge Quarters”. This familiar sequence is supposed to have been composed by Dr. crotch in 1780, based upon part of Han
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2011-11-13
