Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Nov 16, 2008

LOT 435

Musical Clock with Nine Melodies Swiss, Neuchatel. Made circa 1775. Very fine and extremely rare, painted wood and ormolu, 8-day going hour-striking bracket clock with musical movement playing nine melodies on twelve bells with twenty-two hammers on the hour and a provision for automatic change every hour.

C. Painted wood decorated with flower sprays on a pink ground, waisted with glazed side panels, foliate gilt-bronze mounts, a lion?s mask above the dial, giltbronze glazed door with a musical trophy in the lower section, inverted bracket top with gilt-bronze urn finial, foliate feet. D. Convex, painted with radial Roman numerals and outer Arabic five-minute numerals. Finely pierced and engraved brass fleur-delys hands. M. Clock: 18 x 14 cm, rectangular brass plates, going and striking trains with fusee and chain, anchor escapement, striking the hours on a bell, cam acting on a lever to activate the music on the hour. Musical movement: 26 x 11 cm., brass framework, large fusee and chain driving mechanism between two plates with brass fly and stop lever, 62 x 180 mm. pinned brass cylinder, the end with cam for automatic change every hour, horizontal nest of 12 bells at the front with 22 hammers. Dim. 127 x 47 cm., including bracket.