Exceptional Horological Sale Celebrat...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Apr 24, 2004

LOT 54

The Grand Duke Alexis Breguet, No. 1745, sold on December 31, 1894 to Grand Duc Alexis of Russia for 3,000 Francs. Very fine and rare, silver "hump-back", eight day going, "Grande et Petite sonnerie" carriage clock with alarm and quarter-repeating.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

EUR 38,000 - 50,000 / USD 47,000 - 62,000

Sold: CHF 91,500

C. Three-body, polished with hinged bezel and back door. Four bun-feet and silver chain handle.D. Silver with Roman numerals, outer minute track with five-minute Arabic markers, concentric inner alarm setting ring with gold hand, engine-turned center. Blued steel "spade" hands. Gilt brass engine-turned dial plate.M. "Hump-back", 12.5 x 9.8 cm., full plate cylindrical pillars, double going barrel for going and striking trains, platform with straight line "moustache" lever escapement, cut bimetalic compensation balance with blued steel Breguet balance spring, quarter repeating and striking two gongs, alarm striking on its own third gong, Grande and Petite Sonnerie/Silent selection levers above the dial, repeating button on the top. Dial and movement signed. Dim. Height 15,5 cm., width 12 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 01

Notes

The present carriage clock was sold by Antiquorum, New York, on December 4, 2002, lot 351. From an European Collector Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch Romanov (1850-1908) The fifth son of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt. Admiral-general and minister of the Russian Imperial Marine, Alexis became quite popular in the United States when he visited the country. In 1872, he took part in a buffalo hunt with General Sheridan and Buffalo Bill, much to the delight of American cartoonists. That same year he visited New Orleans, attending Mardi Gras celebrations. People learned that his favorite song was a tune entitled "If I Ever Cease to Love You,"("Si jamais je cesse d?aimer") from the operetta "Barbe Bleue". Every band in the parade played it for the Grand Duke?s enjoyment, and it has since become the anthem of the Mardi Gras parade. Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch visited the White House in 1877. In honor of the occasion, President Rutherford Hayes and First Lady Lucy Hayes served wine ? a significant gesture at a time when alcohol was banned from all White House functions. He was buried in the crypt of the Grand-Dukes of the St Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.