Important Collectors’ Wristwatches Po...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 21, 1995

LOT 192

Very special Anglo-French carriage clock, No. 29030, finished in London by Charles Frodsham, 115 New Bond Street, circa 1890. Very fine, gilt brass, eight day going, carriage dock repeating, "Grande, Petite Sonnerie" and alarm. Best English platform escapement.

C.Gilt brass, "Gorge", glazed four sides and top. Repeat button. D. White enamel with Roman chapteur and outer "Arabie" minute ring. Subsidiary white enamel alarrn-setting dial. Blued steel "spade" hands. Matt gilt brass dial plate. M. Rectangular with going barrel for both the going and striking trains. Very special fully jewelled British platform escapement, inscribed Escapement by Chas. Frodsham, 115 New Bond Street, London. Escapement with single roller, pointed tooth escape wheel, cut bimetallic balance, free sprung blued steel balance spring with double overcoil, diamond endstone to balance cock. Striking, repeating and alarm on two gongs with "striking/silent/quarter striking" lever in the base. In very good condition. Note: Among the great number of French carriage docks sold in England, most were produced in Saint Nicolas d'Aliermont, near Dieppe or in the Pays de Montbeliard (Franche Comté). Only the very best were finished in Paris by makers such as Jacot, Drocourt and Margaine. It was not often that a French carriage dock was considered, by Charles Frodsham, an eminent English make, to be good enough to justify his giving it a top quality band made platform lever escapement. In this respect, No. 29030 is more or less unique.