L\'ART DE L\'HORLOGERIE EN FRANCE DE ...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Nov 14, 1993

LOT 40

Pierre Rousseau à Paris, circa 1690. Very fine and unusual, gilt brass, shark-skin covered, Louis XIV "oignon" with alarm.

CHF 9,000 - 10,000

Sold: CHF 10,350

C. Double body, "oignon", fully covered with sharkskin, the flange pierced and engraved with inhabited foliage. D. Gilt bronze with blue Roman numerals on enamel cartouches, gilt brass inner revolving alarm setting disc with engraved Arabic numerals. Blued-steel single hand and pointer. M. Hinged gilt brass with Egyptian pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain steel three-arm balance, short flat balance spring, gilt brass Louis XIV cock pierced and engraved with inhabited foliage and centred with the head of a soldier. Unusual alarm train with gilt brass fixed barrel engraved with scrolls, and two hammers, striking on a bell. Signed on the back plate. In very good condition with a contemporary gilt brass crank key. Diam. 59 mm.


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Notes

For biographical details see note to previous lot. The design used for the cock is very similar to those published by Pierre Bourdon in 1703. Bourdon was a chases and engraver by profession, but his book of designs was to become a standard guide for casemekers of the period. It is of course very likely that the elements were in use some years before. Examples of several plates are published in Tardy's Dictionnaire, Gelis' Horlogerie Ancienne and C. Cardinal's La Montre.