A TRIBUTE TO PRECISION AND COMPLICATE...

Hotel Nogalhilton Geneve, Nov 11, 2001

LOT 45

Precision Timekeeper with 1 ComplicationAntide Janvier, Horloger Mécanicien du Roy, Au(x) Louvre, circa 1800.Unique and spectacular, astronomical, 3 week-going, weight-driven, "resonance" double pendulum wall regulator with two independent trains.

C. Attributed to Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger (1734-1819), mahogany, glazed on both sides and the front with gilt borders, rectangular cresting above molded cornice, molded base fitted with starting device and two pins for controlling the wall distance. D. Two similar dials numbered one and two, silvered and matte, shaped at the top, arched at the bottom, No. 1 with digital hour display, minute ring set in the center with Arabic five-minute markers, seconds set at the lowest part, No. 2 thsame but without hour indication. Blued steel "arrow" hands.M. 17 x 9 cm, two independently working movements, rectangular, brass, both mounted to a very heavy, 20 mm-thick brass plate, Huygens endless rope winding with heavy brass circular weight, four-wheel trains, two independent seconds-beating Ellicott compensation compound pendulums, each with pin-wheel escapement with half-round pins and with unusual impulse delivered via a spring fixed to a suspension spring bracket with micrometric regulator screw. Case bottom equipped with a starting mechanismy Paul Garnier in 1832, ensuring that upon starting, the pendulums are put into cross swinging mode.Signed on the dial and the pendulums.Dim. Length 164 cm, base width 37 cm.