Important Collectors Wristwatches, P...
Geneva, Oct 04, 2009
LOT 322
Quarter-Striking & Quarter Repeating P(ierre). Jaquet Droz a la Chaux de Fonds en Suisse. Made circa 1770. Very fine and extremely rare, faux tortoiseshell lacquered and gilt-bronze, 8-day going bracket clock with quarter-striking and pull quarter-repeating and with conforming wall bracket.
CHF 13,000 - 17,000
USD 12,000 - 16,000 / EUR 8,600 - 11,000
C. Waisted form, veneered overall with red tortoiseshell-effect lacquer, foliate gilt-bronze mounts, flower vase cresting, sides with pierced brass sound frets, hinged gilt bronze door with lock and key, scroll feet, bracket en suite. D. Convex white enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer dot minute divisions and Arabic five-minute numerals. Pierced and engraved gilt brass hands. M. 13.5 x 12.5 cm., gilt brass, large going barrels for both trains, verge escapement with micrometric potence adjustment, silk suspension, gilt brass bob pendulum, quarter striking with two hammers on two stacked bells, quarter countwheel and snail on the backplate, pull-wind quarter-repeat with two further hammers. Movement signed. Dim. 110 x 42 x 15 cm.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: |
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Case: 3-21-26 |
Good Period Upgraded |
Movement: 3* |
Good Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense |
Dial: 3-01 |
Good HANDS Original |
Notes
Born on July 28, 1721 in La Chaux-de- Fonds, Pierre Jaquet-Droz was the son of a farmer who was also an occasional clockmaker. He studied humanities and philosophy in Basel from 1738 to 1739 and then became interested in horology. In 1750 Pierre Jaquet-Droz married Marianne Sandoz, but was left a widower at the age of thirty-four. He never remarried, and seems to have subsequently devoted himself to watchmaking with all the more intensity. In 1758, Jaquet-Droz made the long and difficult journey to Spain, to present his works to King Ferdinand VI.
After his return he devoted his attention to the making of the famous automata: the writer, draughtsman, and musician, and to the founding of the successful Jaquet-Droz firm in London and Geneva, which produced extraordinary mechanical and musical pieces. After 1769, Pierre's son Henry-Louis began working in his father's workshop, alongside Jean-Frederic Leschot (1746-1824), an adoptive son and assistant. This was the start of a fruitful partnership between the three men.
Pierre Jaquet-Droz was the first to make singing bird boxes and enjoyed an excellent reputation for complicated clocks, Neuchâtel clocks and automaton timepieces. When he grew old and retired, the firm was taken over by Henry-Louis and Jean Frédéric Leschot, under the name of Jaquet-Droz & Leschot.
Pierre Jaquet-Droz died in Biel in 1790, at the age of 69.