Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces
Geneva, May 13, 2012
LOT 466
PASSEMENT - IMPORTANT LOUIS XV TELLURIAN ORRERY CLOCK Invanté par Passemant Ingenieur du Roy au Louvre A Paris. Made circa 1765. Highly important and extremely rare, painted and gilt-wood, two-week going, hour and half-hour striking table clock with Tellurian Orrery showing relative motions of the Sun, Earth and Moon with an option for manual demonstration.
CHF 80,000 - 120,000
USD 90,000 - 130,000 / EUR 65,000 - 100,000
Sold: CHF 92,500
C. Circular, pale green painted, the side with three hinged curved glazed doors separated by gilt wood columns, front with the clock within a carved gilt wood laurel-leaf frame, molded base, four molded feet, octagonal gilt molded top. D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions and large fi ve-minute Arabic numerals, winding apertures at 4 and 8 o'clock. Gilt brass Louis XV hands. M. Rectangular arch-top, brass, full plate, going barrels for both trains, anchor escapement, steel rod/brass bob pendulum, silk suspension, adjustment via arbor protruding through the dial, striking on a bell, count wheel on the back plate. Tellurian Orrery movement. Demonstrating the solar system with the Sun, Earth and the Moon, the Sun in the center, small terrestrial globe inclined at 23.5o surmounted by gilt brass ring connected to the ring of the Sun's seasonal changes of the latitude, blue and white moon with dark section always turned away from the Sun, rotating around the Earth in 29.5 days, age of the moon dial, provision for disengaging the train so that the orrery may be turned at will via a crank lever. The mechanism driven off the going train barrel, brass bar with train of wheels supported by bridges, transmitting the movement to the Earth's movement around its axis, from there to the movements of the Moon; the Moon's rotation around its axis, around the Earth and its latitude (via a cam). Another train of wheels via an endless screw (worm gear) transfers the Earth/Moon movement to the rotation around the sun, steel pointer showing the correct day on the annual ring on the top of the case with additional Zodiac and Earth angular position indications. Dial, clock movement and orrery signed. Dim. 45 x 65 cm
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: |
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Case: 3-33 |
Good Restored |
Movement: 3* |
Good Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense |
Dial: 3-01 |
Good HANDS Original |
Notes
Passemant ? ?The King?s Engineer? C. S. Passemant was evidently a very advanced clockmaker and specialized in highly unusual and complicated clocks with astronomical complications. A clock made by Passemant for Louis XV for Versailles between 1746 and 1749 is recorded, described as ?A moving sphere for the King, the case made by Caffi eri father and son?, this was shown in 1749 and kept by the King in 1750. Passemant published a work on the conical pendulum in 1746 and in 1749 a description of the ?moving Sphere?. From 1763, Passemant?s clocks were signed in the manner of the present clock.
The Orrery The fi rst modern Orrery was built circa 1704 by George Graham and Thomas Tompion. Graham gave the fi rst model (or its design) to the celebrated instrument maker John Rowley of London to make a copy for Prince Eugene of Savoy. Rowley was commissioned to make another copy for his patron Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Cork and Orrery, from which the device took its name. This model was presented to Charles' son John, later the 5th Earl. Its importance was partially in that a mechanical model of the universe, correctly named a planetarium now gained the name Orrery. An Orrery should properly include the sun, earth and the (earth's) moon plus optionally other planets. A model that only includes the earth, its moon and the sun is called a tellurian, the name deriving from the latin ?tellus? meaning earth. A tellurian shows the earth with the moon revolving around the sun. It uses the angle of inclination of the equator to show how it rotates around its own axis and shows the earth?s moon, rotating around the earth.