The Private Collection of Theodor Beyer

Hotel Baur Au Lac, Zurich, Nov 16, 2003

LOT 24

Raingo, Paris, circa 1850. Exceptionally fine and equally rare amboyna wood and ormolu orrery driven by an 8-day going, hour and half-hour striking precision table clock with days of the week.

CHF 200,000 - 300,000

EUR 130,000 - 195,000 / USD 148,000 - 222,000

Sold: CHF 212,500

C. Ormolu mounted drum-shaped amboyna wood base, four amboyna wood columns with Doric ormolu capitals decorated with acanthus leaf pattern, each with square ormolu bases, clock between two columns with ormolu bezel, the columns supporting an ormolu-mounted amboyna wood ring for the orrery, the top of the ring applied with 12 ormolu Zodiac signs, bay-leaf ormolu edge, the inner edge of the ring fitted with a silver annual ring.D. Gilt brass, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, inner days-of-the-week divisions, winding apertures at 4 and 8 o'clock. Blued steel hands. M. Circular, 114 mm, brass full plate, going barrels, Brocot escapement (later), gridiron compensation pendulum "à la Berthoud", spring suspension, striking on a bell with a count wheel on the back plate.Orrery movement. Demonstrating the solar system with the sun, earth and the moon, driven from the clock but with its own supporting power system for a four-year duration, having its own four-year leap cycle gilt dial. Rectangular brass movement with steel cylindrical pillars, fitted with a steel pointer showing the correct dayon the silver annual ring, going barrel, gilt brass sun in the center, small terrestrial globe inclined at 23.5o surmounted by gilt brass ring divided into 24 hours connected to the ring of the sun's seasonal changes of the latitude, silver moon, darkened on one side, rotating around the earth in 29.5 days with a gilt age of the moon dial, provision for disengaging the train so that the orrery may be turned at will via a crank lever.Punched with maker's trademark on the pillar plate under the dial.Dim. height 66 cm, base 35 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3-21

Good

Period
Movement: 3-21*

Good

Period

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Most likely made for an aristocratic client in the 1820s, this spectacular object incorporates both an accurate clock and an orrery to calculate the motions of the sun, moon and earth relative to each other throughout the year, in addition to a precision clock with gridiron pendulum. The case of this splendid clock and orrery is of chased ormolu and curled and mottled amboyna wood, carefully chosen and beautifully made.Since man first looked up at the stars he has dreamed of being able to capture their glory and study their mysteries at his leisure. An orrery was one means by which to understand our place in the universe. It consisted of spheres representing the planets of our solar system that would trace out their movements when a handle was turned,The publication in 1543 of Nicolas Copernicus's heliocentric (sun-centered) model of the solar system resulted in serious objections from astronomers who based their science on a Ptolemaic or earth-centered model. To overcome these objections, Copernican planetaria were constructed, consisting of globes rotating within a framework to represent the planets of the solar system, with their approximate sizes, motions, and positions.Perhaps the most famous of these was a late version, invented in 1710 by George Graham and named for his patron, Charles Boyle, the Fourth Earl of Orrery now in the Adler Planetarium, Chicago. Thus originated the word "orrery", which is now commonly applied to all instruments of this kind.