Pendule depicting HRH Maria Carolina Duchess of Berry

Standing clock in gilded bronze and porcelain with arched case.
Exhibition composed of a polychrome porcelain plaque depicting a portrait of HRH Maria Carolina Duchess of Berry (1798-1870) immersed in a
hilly landscape and surmounted by a dance of cupids holding garlands of roses on which there is a hole for reading the hours on the dials
swivels.
Two-train movement with round plates and rear-loading, double-wheel escapement (illustrated on page 68 of "Échappements d'horloges et de montres"
Charles Gros 1913), lateral pendulum, striking the hours and quarters on two bells by means of a wheel with alternating cam cycles and translating hammers
with sliding apparatus of the dials divided respectively into: hour disc with "jump" system and minute disc with constant cycle.
The time is adjusted using a wheel located on the rear plate of the movement.
Silvered disc dials with Arabic numerals divided into an upper dial for the hours and a lower dial for the minutes. France 1825/1830 (cm 59x30x13.5) (defects and
slight substitutions)
The clock presented here most likely comes from the Music Room of the Royal Palace of Naples.
In the ASN (Naples State Archive) Royal Administrative House, Il1 inv. envelope 88, a series of objects are listed that the Queen Mother (Maria
Isabella of Bourbon Spain (1789-1848) withdraws from the Royal Palace and from the palaces of Portici and Capodimonte to furnish her new home (Casino della
Regina located in the park of Capodimonte) including "a table clock in gilded bronze with music underneath, for four arias, located on the pedestal, in front
of said clock on glazed porcelain is the portrait of H.R.H. the Duchess of Berry".
The same clock is described in the 1848 inventory as a table clock in gilt bronze with a porcelain figure on the front, with the indication
of the time with "loophole", crystal bell and music in the base.
The two inventories mention the fact that the clock had a musical apparatus that no longer exists. It is important to note that in many examples of
watchmaking, the musical machines could be placed in a separate pedestal from the case and only in some cases were the two systems connected by referrals
mechanical.
In the mechanism of the watch presented here (and in particular on the front plate) there is a snail which completes one revolution per hour but which
it is no longer connected to anything. This component supports the probable theory that the clock was originally placed on a pedestal
musical just like the one described in the inventories of the Royal House of Bourbon.
The mechanism, certainly original and of high quality, is applied to the case by means of three brass brackets which were probably replaced in a
not recent past. On that occasion, the new supports caused the revolving dials to move away from the reading hole on the making exhibition
reading the hours is more difficult. This modification, as well as some other small modifications that are certainly reversible, do not compromise in our opinion
the integrity of the piece as a whole.
Bibliography:
-Charles Gros. Échappements d'horloges et de montres 1913
-Naples 1836, the rooms of the Queen Mother by Patrizia Rosazza Ferraris. Rome

The clock is equipped with a card dated September 2018 by prof. Alvar Gonzalez Palacios