Skeleton pendulum clock, French Directoire

Fin and rare long duration Directoire skeleton clock with remontoire wound by the hour and half-hour striking train. Cast and gilt one-piece bombé frame on oval white marble base and standing on four turned feet. White enamel chapter ring with Breguet numerals and outer minute ring. Embossed pearl gilt brass bezel. Brass parallel bar frame with going barrel attached to the great wheel. Five-wheel train with single arm pin-wheel escapement running approx. two months. Remontoire operated half-hour striking train driven from the intermediate wheel with pierced locking plate and three-arm fly regulator. Striking on a bell mounted beneath the frame. Light and charming ring. Excellent condition. Working. No signature.

Size: H 45 cm x W 22 cmx D 12,5 cm

France, Directoire period, circa 1790.

Lit: This clock is a marvel of ingenuity. The particularity of the skeleton clock is to let see its mechanism on the reverse and through its openwork dial. Heir to the gantry clock, it is usually composed of an arch supporting one or more dials. This form was a great success in the last years of the eighteenth century and into the first half of the nineteenth century because of the desire of watchmakers to demonstrate their mastery, technical progress, as well as in response to the decorative overload of figurative clocks.

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