Exceptional horologic works of art

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Oct 11, 2003

LOT 574

Henry Moser & Co., No. 7056 made for the Russian market circa 1870. Extremely fine and rare, silver eight-day going, quarter-repeating carriage clock striking hours and half-hours with alarm, full calendar, day and night indication and chronometer escapement.

CHF 65,000 - 85,000

EUR 42,000 - 55,000

Sold: CHF 146,500

C. multi-piece, ?Empire?, massive, engine-turned, solid silver panels with silver laurel-leaf frames, the edges with flat section Corinthian columns silver finely chased capitals, glazed back, engine-turned top with glazed round aperture for viewing the escapement, four turned ball finials and arched handle, four bun feet. D. white enamel with small radial Roman chapter and seven subsidiary dials for seconds, ages of the moon, date, months with indications of the number of days in each, 24-hour dial calibrated for sunrise, midnight, sunset and noon, and days of the week with corresponding planets, below alarm setting. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. rectangular, 92 x 67 mm, brass, going barrels both on the going and the striking trains, frosted silvered and gilded platform with spring detent escapement, two-arm cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel helical balance spring with terminal curves. Striking, repeating and alarm on single bell set on the back plate, striking and repating work on the pillar plate under the dial.Punched with maker's trademark on numerous parts of the caseDim. 155 x 106 x 80 mm excluding the handle.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Notes

This outstanding carriage clock can be compared with the best production of Breguet. The layout of the dial is elegant and unusual the sunrise and sunset indication is quite rare, the chronometer escapement is found only in the best carriage clocks. There exists one clock, very similar in appearance, made by Breguet for the Russian market. There is another signed by Wendham, Breguet's agent in Russia, which is strikingly similar. Hence, there is no surprise that when Moser wanted to present a carriage clock in his St. Petersburg or Moscow showroom, he chose the same design. He also secured one of the best platform makers for carriage clocks, Lézé, to make one for his clock. Although the platform is not signed, it shows unmistakable characteristics of Lézé's work. Lézé. Was a maker of carriage clock platform escapements spring detent, who succeeded Blondeau, Horloger du Roi, 19 Rue de la Paix, in Paris. For another example of his work see Antiquorum, October 20, 2002, lot 144. It is conceivable that both the case and the movement came from the Lézé workshop. Lézé made very similar clocks in the tradition of his predecessor Blondeau, who is known to have made a similar magnificent carriage clock which was sold to the Duc de Vallombiosa.predecessor Blondeau, who is known to have made a similar magnificent carriage clock which was sold to the Duc de Vallombiosa.