A TRIBUTE TO PRECISION AND COMPLICATE...

Hotel Nogalhilton Geneve, Nov 11, 2001

LOT 119

Precision Timekeeper with 1 ComplicationBarraud, Maker to the Royal Navy, 41. Cornhill, London, No. 2736, circa 1850.Fine and very rare two-day marine chronometer with auxiliary compensation and 56-hour power reserve indicator.

CHF 20,000 - 25,000

USD 12,500 - 15,500

Sold: CHF 23,000

C. Brass bowl with weighting ring and threaded glazed bezel gimbaled in three-body brass-bound mahogany box with glazed panel in the top under hinged lid with fitted catch, flush-fitted brass handles and circular mother-of-pearl plate, Breguet-type key in a corner plate, key-lock in front, gimbal ring locked by two swiveling arms pressing upwards against the base of the cylinder. D. Silvered, radial Roman hour numerals, Arabic seconds on subsidiary dial at XII o'clock, up-and-down indicator at Vo'clock, applied gilt Royal and Admiralty coat-of-arms. Gold "spade" hands. M. 81,5 mm, brass full plate, turned pillars, secured by screws, fusee and chain, Earnshaw spring-detent escapement, Earnshaw's cut bimetallic compensation balance with one wedged weight and the other carrying Lund's auxiliary compensation, blued steel helical balance spring with outer terminal curves.Signed on the dial.Dim. Height 18 cm, width and depth 17 cm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3 - 8
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 5 - 01

Notes

A very rare chronometer, just a handful of Lund's compensating devices are known to survive. Cedric Jagger, in his book "Paul Philip Barraud. A study of a fine Chronometer Maker", London, 1968, says that he has seen only four specimens (1718, 2326, 2330, 2913), two of which were still in service on oil tankers in 1968.Lund's auxiliary compensation weightsIn 1843 Lund patented a small temperature-sensitive contrivance, which could be fitted to any standard balance in place of regular weights and so eliminate mean temperature error. Lund's weight, working on the principle of bimetallic compensation, induces non-linear expansion to the balance system which in theory cancels the changes of elasticity in the balance spring and so makes compensation perfect. According to Cedric Jagger, in the above mentioned work, all four Barrauds with Lund's weighthat he saw had applied Royal and Admiralty coats-of-arms. No other Barraud chronometers are fitted with this feature. The Royal coat-of-arm apparently refers to the Letters Patent and the Admiralty's to the fact that he was "Maker to the Royal Navy".A virtually identical chronometer, No. 2365, but without Lund's auxiliary weight, is in the collection of the Museo della Specola, Bologna, inv. MdS-75.