Lot 5
A good late 19th century French striking and repeating enamel decorated engraved brass carriage clock with Patent Surety Roller Gay and Lamaille, number 474
11 July 2018, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £2,750 inc. premium
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A good late 19th century French striking and repeating enamel decorated engraved brass carriage clock with Patent Surety Roller
Gay and Lamaille, number 474
The case with ribbed folding handle over an engraved top panel depicting flowers and foliage on a matted ground, the cornice and base castings similarly decorated, the side panels decorated with panels of blue enamel and a lattice-work ground, the silvered Arabic dial set within a matching mask, with blued steel hands, the twin barrel movement stamped on the backplate 'PATENT SURETY ROLLER' and bearing the G.L. trademark and number 474, striking and repeating on a blued steel coiled gong, the silvered lever platform escapement with cut and compensated bimetallic balance visible through the oval bevelled glass inspection panel to the top 19cm (7in) high
The case with ribbed folding handle over an engraved top panel depicting flowers and foliage on a matted ground, the cornice and base castings similarly decorated, the side panels decorated with panels of blue enamel and a lattice-work ground, the silvered Arabic dial set within a matching mask, with blued steel hands, the twin barrel movement stamped on the backplate 'PATENT SURETY ROLLER' and bearing the G.L. trademark and number 474, striking and repeating on a blued steel coiled gong, the silvered lever platform escapement with cut and compensated bimetallic balance visible through the oval bevelled glass inspection panel to the top 19cm (7in) high
Footnotes
The Patent Surety Roller was invented by Moritz Immisch in 1879, its purpose was to ensure that the hourly strike could not be knocked out of synch if the clock received a jar in transit. Immisch was born in Germany in 1838 and moved to London in his early 20s, by 1863 he was the foreman at LeRoy and Fils on Regent Street. He was obviously a man of some energy, becoming a Council Member of the British Horological Institute and winning its Baroness Burdett Coutts prize in 1873 for an article on the balance spring. Six years later he developed the Patent Surety Roller, and in the 1880s he turned his focus towards electricity, particularly motors and their charging.
Gay and Lamaille became partners circa 1878, acquiring Immisch's patent two years later. Numbered clocks using the device have been recorded from 194 through to 5887 - see Wotruba: 'The story behind the PATENT SURETY ROLLER stamped on carriage clocks', Antiquarian Horology, June 2017, p.239. The current clock, therefore would appear to be an early example.
Provenance:
Christie's, 7 May 1992, lot 67.
An almost identical example by Gay and Lamaille, numbered 1220 is illustrated in Roberts, 'Carriage and Other Travelling Clocks' (1993), p.178.
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