CHEVALLIER PRECISION CENTER-SECONDS MANTEL CLOCK Chevallier Aux Thuilleries

CHEVALLIER PRECISION CENTER-SECONDS MANTEL CLOCK Chevallier Aux Thuilleries. Made circa 1870. Very fine and impressive, Napoleon III, gilt-bronze, 8-day going, hour and half-hour striking, dead center-seconds mantel clock with calendar, deadbeat escapement and gridiron pendulum. Rectangular, gilt-bronze, fluted pilasters with outswept acanthus bases, the capitals hung with flower swags, glazed sides hung with fruiting vines, beneath the dial laurel branches with a flower wreath, base with rounded corners and inset with applied berried ivy mounts, stepped circular feet, glazed bell top with fl ower swags and surmounted by a winged putto reclining on a cushion, a bird on his knee. Convex white enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute and seconds track with large Arabic fi ve-minute numerals, inner red date numerals. Pierced gilt hour and minute hands, blued steel calendar and seconds hand. Circular gilt-brass, large going barrels for both trains, modified Graham deadbeat escapement, 9-rod steel and brass gridiron pendulum with spring suspension, rating nut, micrometer crutch adjustment, large brass bob. Dial signed. Dim. 61 x 35 x 24.5 cm. Notes Gridiron Pendulum The rod is composed of separate bars of brass and steel rods having different coeffi cients of expansion, so that the pendulum has the same length at any temperature. John Harrison used 9 bars of brass and steel when he fi rst introduced the design in 1729. Some gridiron pendulums use fewer rods and differ Read more…