Exceptional horologic works of art

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Oct 11, 2003

LOT 570

E. Savary, Horologer Constucteur, Paris, based on the invention of Père Ildefonse Franciscain Recollet, started circa 1882, completed about 1892. A near pair of extremely interesting and rare ebonized wood and ormolu ?Cosmographique et Astronomique? hour and half hour-striking 15-day going clocks with Terrestrial Orrery, Equation of Time, manual annular calendar, 3-dimensional phases of the moon, Epact Indication, Zodiac Indication, Universal Dial and World Time. Winner of a Silver Medal at the 1883-84 Nice Exhibition. Accompanied by the original instructions and description papers.

CHF 100,000 - 150,000

EUR 65,000 - 98,000

Sold: CHF 108,000

C. octagonal on round molded base, painted black, three side panels fitted with different dials, three with floral ormolu appliqués, the top with terrestrial orrery on gilt brass base and gilt brass columns supporting equator, silver dove at the top. D. all silvered on one with spade hands, and enamel with Breguet hands on the other. Indications for each are as follows (1.a terrestrial globe, (2 an equitorial chapter ring with 24-hour indication for calculation of world time, (3 a solar horizon for calculation of sunrise and set at any point on the globe, (4 a solar horizon for calculation of the mean sunrise and sunset for all locations on the globe, (5 a universal meridian indicator, (6 a sun for calculating the exact length of dusk, dawn, day and night, (7 a dial for the hours and minutes, (8 a 3 dimensional moon phase, (9 a dial for lunar days, (10 a dial for days of the week,leap years and the Epact over thirty years, (11 an equation of time dial, (12 a dial for month and date, (3 a dial for the Zodiac, season and length of each month, (14 a Universal Dial which indicates the time at the solar meridian. M. Clock: Rectangular, brass, platform with lateral counterpoised lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with Breguet balance spring, rack striking on a gong. Astronomical indications: center of the clock is fitted with a vertical shaft mounted with a contrate wheel driven from the clock, the shaft is also fitted with different gearing transmitting motions to the other dials. The globe: driven directly from the center shaft, the solar circle (coucher de Soleil driven from the Zodiac shaft, Universal Indicator circle set manually.Signed on main and universal dials, globe and a plaque on the globe base.Dim. Height 81 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 - 21
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Notes

It has been a centuries-old tradition among monks to built clocks. It is conceivable that the first mechanical clock was created in a monastery..Père Ildefonse, his real name was Barthélemy Lucifredi de Gazzo, was a Franciscan from the monastery Cimiez, close to ice and a member of the French Astronomical Society. The complicated mechanism to the clock he designed was built in 1883, when it was presented at the ice Exhibition and won the Silver Medal. After the exhibition the case and the details of the globe were worked out and it was finally finished after 1891 when the details of the globe were edited by Charles Delagrave.Delagrave, the editor and possibly the printer of the globe, of the ?Institut Géographique de Paris?, was an eminent cartographer and the author of numerous atlases, as well as the creator of new maps, especially of south-eastern Asia. He also had his own consulting business at 15, rue Soufflot in Paris.Epact: The surplus days of the solar over the lunar year; hence, more freely, the number of days in the age of the moon on 1 January of any given year. The whole system of epacts is based on the Metonic Lunar Cycle otherwise known as the Cycle of Golden umbers, and serves to indicate the days of the year on which the new moons occur.A similar clock was sold by the Galerie d'Horlogerie Ancienne Antiquorum on the 9th of October 1977, lot 222.