James Stratton
Director
Lot 132
A rare mid 19th century French 'Bubble' top grande sonnerie giant carriage clock with detent escapement
Berrolla Ainé, Rue de la Tour 2
20 June 2012, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £43,250 inc. premium
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A rare mid 19th century French 'Bubble' top grande sonnerie giant carriage clock with detent escapement
Berrolla Ainé, Rue de la Tour 2
The gilt bronze case of rectangular section, surmounted by the glass dome and a spherical finial to each corner, over tapered freestanding columns, raised on a plinth base and four knurled feet, almost all surfaces engraved with profuse foliate scrolls and flowers, the signed 3.25 inch enamel Roman dial over a rectangular enamel subsidiary panel showing day, date and alarm, within the foliate engraved gilt bronze mask with three winding holes, the two train spring barrel movement with visible detent escapement housed beneath the glass dome displaying the engraved bridge with central jewel over the blued steel helical spring to a cut and compensated bimetallic balance with keystone shaped weights and timing screws, engraved barrels, strike/silent and grande/petite sonnerie selection levers striking the hours and quarters on two bells mounted on the foliate engraved backplate; together with the original leather covered travelling case with domed cover, tooled borders, brass hasps and handles (one lacking). 28cm (11in) high.
The gilt bronze case of rectangular section, surmounted by the glass dome and a spherical finial to each corner, over tapered freestanding columns, raised on a plinth base and four knurled feet, almost all surfaces engraved with profuse foliate scrolls and flowers, the signed 3.25 inch enamel Roman dial over a rectangular enamel subsidiary panel showing day, date and alarm, within the foliate engraved gilt bronze mask with three winding holes, the two train spring barrel movement with visible detent escapement housed beneath the glass dome displaying the engraved bridge with central jewel over the blued steel helical spring to a cut and compensated bimetallic balance with keystone shaped weights and timing screws, engraved barrels, strike/silent and grande/petite sonnerie selection levers striking the hours and quarters on two bells mounted on the foliate engraved backplate; together with the original leather covered travelling case with domed cover, tooled borders, brass hasps and handles (one lacking). 28cm (11in) high.
Footnotes
The Berrolla family are recorded as living in Paris' Rue de la Tour between 1850-1860. They showed their carriage clocks in the Paris Exposition of 1839 and the 'Rapport du Jury Central' noted that once again Berolla offered his own peculiar type of escapement. The Berollas exhibited carriage clocks at the London 1851 Exhibition and in 1857, the firm took out a fifteen year patent for a detent escapement for clocks.
Comparative literature:
A similar example is illustrated in Derek Roberts' 'Carriage and other Travelling Clocks', (Schiffer 1993), pages 210-211, figures 13-5 a,b,c and d.
Provenance:
This lot was bought from a London household that suffered bomb damage during the Second World War. The carrying case, stored in the attic was hit by schrapnel, thankfully the clock remained unscathed in a downstairs room.