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

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Nov 14, 1993

LOT 56

Gosselin à Paris, circa 1740, réparée par Feront. Extremely rare and fine tortoiseshell veneered moon phase astronomical, quarter-striking, longcase clock with fly-back perpetual calendar, equation of time, sun-rise and sun-set times.

CHF 350,000 - 400,000

C. Shaped, veneered with ebony framed red tortoise-shell and inlaid with brass stringing in a geometrical pattern. Very fine applied ormolu rocaille decoration with further leaf and floral ornaments. D. Silvered chapter-ring with Roman numerals and outer Arabic minute ring, inner subsidiary seconds and leap year cycle aperture. Gilt brass dial-plate, engraved with a decoration in a geometrical pattern and a small landscape with with houses and windmill, applied with a silvered half moon sector for the perpetual calendar, inner moon-phase aperture with moon calendar on the border. Subsidiary apertures for hours and minutes of stl-rise, on the left with outer indication of the sun in the Zodiac, and of sun-set on the right, with outer annual calendar. Bluedsteel hands and gilt brass equation hand. M. Brass rectangular weight-driven movement with turned conical pillars, Graham dead-beat escapement with steel pallets, seconds beating pendulum with spring blade suspension. Springdriven independent hour and quarter striking trains with going barrels and count-wheels on the back plate. Calendar work below the movement with equation kidney on the back. Signed the dial and the back plate. In good condition. Dim. 215x49x21cm.


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Notes

For brief biographical note on Gosselin see lot 49. The first clock ever made in France with a perpetual calendar, was the invention of Enderlin and is decribed by Thiout 1' Aîné in his Traité d' horlogerie, pp. 353-357, pl. 25, (photocopies will be furnished with the clock). A clock with a similar movement by Jean Charost, Paris, is described by Winthrop Edey in French Clocks, Collectors Blue Books, pp. 50 and 52. The usual method for the inlaid decoration of the early French longcase clocks was with tortoiseshell veneer in the manner of André-Charles Boulle. The fashion was at its height at the same time as Louis XIV reached the most glorious period of his reign, and it waned in popularity with the coming of the Regence in 1715. This clock dates from very close to the invention of the perpetual calendar system employed, and in view of the elaborate mounts and red tortoiseshell veneer would seem to have been a special order.