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Lot 95
A fine and very rare giant chronometer carriage clock with patent remontoire, power reserve indication and running secondsSigned Edouard François, Paris, No. 3 Late 19th century
16 October 2019, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$11,950 inc. premium
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A fine and very rare giant chronometer carriage clock with patent remontoire, power reserve indication and running seconds
Signed Edouard François, Paris, No. 3
Date: Late 19th century
Movement: The substantial rectangular plates joined by four screwed nickel plated pillars, silvered platform with pivoted detent escapement, cut bimetallic balance with overcoiled spring, the center pinion of the jeweled train driven by subsidiary spring barrel planted on the back plate and rewound at short intervals by the mainspring barrel, rack striking the hour and half hour on blued steel gong
Dial: Silvered and monogrammed CH conjoined, the large seconds ring above a roman chapter ring with Arabic minute numerals enclosing an 8-day winding indicator, blued hands
Case: Corniche with beveled glass panels
Signed: dial and movement
Size: 11 ¼ in (28.5cm) high including handle
Date: Late 19th century
Movement: The substantial rectangular plates joined by four screwed nickel plated pillars, silvered platform with pivoted detent escapement, cut bimetallic balance with overcoiled spring, the center pinion of the jeweled train driven by subsidiary spring barrel planted on the back plate and rewound at short intervals by the mainspring barrel, rack striking the hour and half hour on blued steel gong
Dial: Silvered and monogrammed CH conjoined, the large seconds ring above a roman chapter ring with Arabic minute numerals enclosing an 8-day winding indicator, blued hands
Case: Corniche with beveled glass panels
Signed: dial and movement
Size: 11 ¼ in (28.5cm) high including handle
Footnotes
Edouard François was granted French patent no. 128652 on 25 January 1879, for a "chronomètre perfectionné".
He designed a remontoire mechanism in which the mainspring is used to wind a subsidiary spring barrel that actually drives the train. Planted on the backplate, the base of the smaller barrel is set with a series of pins that periodically engage a lever that releases a cam that unlocks the mainspring barrel. A short period of rewinding follows until the cam is re engaged.
A complete description with diagrams can be found in Description des Machines et Procédés pour lesquels des Brevets d'Invention ont été Pris...Tome XXXI, Année 1879. Paris (1885) pp 1-4.
Chronomètre No. 1, was sold at Bonhams London, 12 December 2018, lot 116 (£13,750)
An un-numbered example is illustrated in Fanelli, J., Terwilliger, Ch. A Century of Fine Carriage Clocks. (1987) page 136, item 64. Another un-numbered example signed Berthoud is illustrated in Allix & Bonnert, Carriage Clocks (1974), page 112, Plate V/12.