Important collector's watches, wristw...

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Apr 13, 2002

LOT 29

Isaac Thuret, A Paris, circa 1690. Very rare and fine ebonized early balance spring hour and half hour striking traveling clock.

CHF 20,000 - 25,000

EUR 14,000 - 17,000 / USD 12,000 - 15,000

Sold: CHF 23,000

C. Lyre-shaped with molded base and top, surmounted by a bell, hinged back door. D. Lyre-shaped gilt brass, applied silver ring with champlevé radial Roman numerals, inner quarter-hour division and outer minutes from 1 to 60, regulator sector aperture at the top for the balance spring, decorated with floral engraving. Blued steel ?Louis XIV? hands. M. Lyre-shaped, brass, baluster pillars, going barrels for going and striking trains, verge escapement, large three-arm steel balance, blued steel two-turn flat balance spring, two-footed plain gilt brass cock, brass count wheel on the back plate with blued steel ?tulip? hand. Signed on dial. Dim. Height 34 cm, base width 15 cm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 14

Damaged
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-15-01

Good

Slightly rusted

HANDS Original

Notes

When Huygens invented the balance spring in 1675 he choose Thuret to implement it in a timepiece with his pirouette verge escapement. Therefore it is not surprising to find so early a clock with balance and balance spring made by Thuret. Seventeenth century traveling clocks, precursors of carriage clocks, are very rare, and only a very few are known to have survived. These are mostly French, though some English ones, including one by Tompion, are known.