Important Collectors’ Watches, Pocket...

Geneva, Oct 14, 2007

LOT 383

?Eight-Tune Organ Clock? Pierre Jaquet Droz, a la Chaux-de-Fonds. Made circa 1770. Extremely fine and rare, red tortoiseshell veneered and ormolu, 8-day going, hour and half-hour striking and hour-repeating, musical bracket clock with twelve-pipe organ playing a selection of eight tunes on the hour or at will.

CHF 110,000 - 140,000

EUR 67,000 - 85,000 / USD 90,000 - 115,000

Sold: CHF 141,000

C. Rectangular, tortoiseshell veneered, brass mounted with gilt bronze rococo vine branches applied on the canted corners, rocaille scroll feet, the pediment with pine-cone finials and surmounted by a fine gilt bronze branch of foliage and flowers, the side panel with gilt brass frets and hinged bronze handles, left panel with tune selector, right panel with repeating cord. D. White enamel, convex with radial Roman numerals and outer Arabic minute ring. Gilt brass Louis XV hands. The gilt brass dial plate with applied gilt bronze foliate scrolls beneath the dial, below six o?clock aperture for music/silence lever. M. Brass, rectangular, with cylindrical pillars, massive fusee with chain, verge escapement, half seconds-beating pendulum with silk suspension, striking train with massive fusee and chain, the count wheel on the back plate, striking and repeating on a bell, the pull-cord repeating train with rack and levers on the back plate. Organ: Brass, set below the going train, double fusee and double chain, wooden cylinder with brass pins, bellows and 12 pipes, fly governor with two adjustable blades. Movement signed, the mainspring signed G. Langin, known to be the spring maker of the Jaquet Droz workshop. Dim. 84 x 44 x 26 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Only two other clocks of this type are known to exist, one in a Swiss private collection, the other in the Musée International d'Horlogerie in La Chauxde- Fonds. The clock is exceptionally well-made, the double barrel and double fusee arrangement for the music assuring long duration. The heavy, compacted brass movement is typical of Jaquet-Droz, the case is also exceptionally well made. During this period Jaquet-Droz was the only maker in Switzerland producing complicated musical clocks.