Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces
Hong Kong, Jul 23, 2020
LOT 81
Charles Oudin
Giant eight-day going carriage-clock, quarter-repeater, Grande et Petite Sonnerie, “Westminster Quarters” carillon, alarm; “Anglaise Riche”, Limoges-style décor; gilded brass and enamel
Giant eight-day going carriage-clock, quarter-repeater, Grande et Petite Sonnerie, “Westminster Quarters” carillon, alarm; “Anglaise Riche”, Limoges-style décor; gilded brass and enamel
HKD 78,000 - 104,000
CHF 9,500 - 12,700 / USD 10,100 - 13,400
Gilded brass, key-winding, vertical rectangular-shape, eight-day going, “Westminster Quarters” carillon giant carriage-clock, with four horological complications:
• Quarter-repeater on four gongs via four hammers (so-called “Westminster Quarters” or chimes of “Big Ben”)
• “Grande Sonnerie”
• “Petite Sonnerie” … with three position selection lever (“Grande Sonnerie”, “Petite Sonnerie” and “Silence”) in the base
• Alarm on a further gong via a further hammer (subsidiary dial at 6 o’clock)
“Anglaise Riche” case with Corinthian columns and Limoges-style enamel side panels painted en grisaille, showing probably Diane de Poitiers
• Quarter-repeater on four gongs via four hammers (so-called “Westminster Quarters” or chimes of “Big Ben”)
• “Grande Sonnerie”
• “Petite Sonnerie” … with three position selection lever (“Grande Sonnerie”, “Petite Sonnerie” and “Silence”) in the base
• Alarm on a further gong via a further hammer (subsidiary dial at 6 o’clock)
“Anglaise Riche” case with Corinthian columns and Limoges-style enamel side panels painted en grisaille, showing probably Diane de Poitiers
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: AAA |
Excellent |
Case: 3 |
Good |
Movement: 3* |
Good Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense |
Dial: 3-71-01 |
Good ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Hairlines HANDS Original |
Brand Charles Oudin, Paris
Year circa 1880-1900
Movement No. 2 769
Caliber 100 x 80 mm. (ebauche No. 3 882 stamped “A B” on the inside of the back plate, probably by Alfred Baveux), high quality plat-form escapement with straight-line equilibrated lever escapement, à moustaches, cut bimetallic compensated balance with gold poising screws and blued steel flat hairspring, index regulator
Dimensions 178 x 105 x 93 mm. (with the handle)
Signature dial (by the retailer) and movement (by the maker)
Accessories gilded brass winding-key
Notes
Westminster Quarters
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 an air by Georg Friedrich Handel (fifth and sixth measures of the air of “I Know that my Redeemer Liveth” from the “Messiah”). Lord Grimthorpe heard the chimes of Great St. Mary’s in Cambridge and adopted them for the Great Clock at Westminster.
Westminster Chimes play a 20-chime sequence, on four gongs or bells, with hours struck on their own gong or bell. It is based on a complicated mechanism, believed to have been originally invented by someone with initials “A B”, which are generally found punched inside the back plate on “Westminster Quarters” carriage clocks known. It has been speculated that either Alfred Baveux (1846-1891), Saint-Nicolas-d’Aliermont, near Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, or the company of Achille Brocot (1817-1878), Paris, is behind the mysterious “A B” monogram. The model with bells can be the creation of Victor Reclus, Paris.
Carriage clocks having “Westminster Quarters” are exceedingly rare. They are really a more expensive variant of Grande and Petite Sonnerie. Around twenty are known today, built in three mains variants, with carillon of gongs or carillon of bells. They were retailed by famous watchmakers, such as Breguet, Ecalle, Le Roy, Oudin, Rodanet and Sandoz in Paris, Hausmann in Rome, Capt in Geneva, but also Caldwell in Philadelphia and Hall, Nicoll & Granberry in New York.
Bibliography
• Allix, Charles, & Bonnert, Peter, Carriage Clocks, Their History and Developement, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1974, pp. 196-197
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 an air by Georg Friedrich Handel (fifth and sixth measures of the air of “I Know that my Redeemer Liveth” from the “Messiah”). Lord Grimthorpe heard the chimes of Great St. Mary’s in Cambridge and adopted them for the Great Clock at Westminster.
Westminster Chimes play a 20-chime sequence, on four gongs or bells, with hours struck on their own gong or bell. It is based on a complicated mechanism, believed to have been originally invented by someone with initials “A B”, which are generally found punched inside the back plate on “Westminster Quarters” carriage clocks known. It has been speculated that either Alfred Baveux (1846-1891), Saint-Nicolas-d’Aliermont, near Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, or the company of Achille Brocot (1817-1878), Paris, is behind the mysterious “A B” monogram. The model with bells can be the creation of Victor Reclus, Paris.
Carriage clocks having “Westminster Quarters” are exceedingly rare. They are really a more expensive variant of Grande and Petite Sonnerie. Around twenty are known today, built in three mains variants, with carillon of gongs or carillon of bells. They were retailed by famous watchmakers, such as Breguet, Ecalle, Le Roy, Oudin, Rodanet and Sandoz in Paris, Hausmann in Rome, Capt in Geneva, but also Caldwell in Philadelphia and Hall, Nicoll & Granberry in New York.
Bibliography
• Allix, Charles, & Bonnert, Peter, Carriage Clocks, Their History and Developement, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1974, pp. 196-197