Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong Kong, Mar 19, 2016

LOT 87

GAUDRON LOUIS XIV BOULLE CLOCK Gaudron A Paris. Made circa 1700 and later. Very fine, Louis XIV, 8-day going, hour and half-hour striking, ormolu- mounted tortoiseshell and brass Boulle marquetry bracket clock.

HKD 80,000 - 120,000

USD 10,000 - 15,000 / CHF 10,000 - 15,000

Sold: HKD 175,000

Regence form with arched cornice surmounted by an boulle and ormolu foliate cresting, ormolu border and four urn finials, above, a lambrequin cornice, the body of the case glazed on three sides, the canted corners with mask and scroll mounts, raised on a scroll base with a mask mount in the center, on ormolu toupie feet; the whole finely veneered in marquetry in brass on grounds of red tortoiseshell forming foliate scrolls, foliate corner mounts, ormolu finial of a winged figure of Victory in classical drapery sounding her trumpet and holding aloft a palm frond. Ormolu with white enameled cartouches, radial Roman numerals, outer minutes with every minute numbered, chased and engraved center with a profile portrait of Louis XIV flanked by military trophies above a crowned globe, gilt bronze mask below decorated with two female figures of Flora and Urania flanking a winged cherub holding a pair of dividers over a globe. Well-pierced blued steel hands. Of later date, rectangular, brass, two spring barrels for the going and striking trains, anchor escapement, steel rod brass- bob pendulum with spring suspension, rack striking on a bell mounted on the top of the case.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3-13

Good

Slightly damaged
Movement: 3

Good
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Dial signed. DIM. 92 x 48.5 x 16 cm. The movement of the present clock was probably fitted in the late 19th or early 20th century. ANTOINE I GAUDRON b. c. 1640; d. Paris 3 August 1714. Married to Anne Baignoux 1671. Father of Pierre, Antoine II and Marie-Anne, who married Guillaume Hubert, merchant goldsmith in Paris, and later Marchand-orfevre de la reine d'Angleterre, Merchant goldsmith to the Queen of England in London. Received as master at Saint-Gcrmain-des-Pr&s between 1660 and 1665, then in Paris on 5 June 1675. Jure 1690-1692. Associated with his sons to trade in "clocks, precious stones, pictures, mirrors, porcelains, bronzes and jewels" 1698. Established Place Dauphin at La Perle 1698 and also at La Renommte 1709, He died comfortably off, leaving more than 174,000 livres. Technically, he invented remarkable movements with several functions. According to his son Pierre, he made in 1688 a "regulator... which followed equations by means of a curve which raised or lowered the clock", which would make it the first French equation clock. It is highly probable that this invention, unconfirmed by any other evidence, was only partially perfected. Antoine Gaudron was Charles Le Bon's best man at his wedding on 18 August 1707, while Pierre Gaudron wrote in his will that Julien Le Roy "has always showed the greatest gratitude to, and the most sincere admiration for my deceased father", leaving him the 1688 clock among others. It is possible that Le Bon and Le Roy were his compagnons; they were certainly his pupils.