Lot 20*
A good mid 19th century French engraved one-piece cased repeating carriage clock with duplex escapement, day, date, alarm and quarter repeat J.B. Beguin, Paris
13 July 2023, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £5,120 inc. premium
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A good mid 19th century French engraved one-piece cased repeating carriage clock with duplex escapement, day, date, alarm and quarter repeat
J.B. Beguin, Paris
The elaborately engraved case with shaped and facetted handle above the large glazed inspection panel over three bevelled glass panels, the rear door solid and sliding upwards in a pair of runners to reveal the winding and setting squares, raised on a plinth base with shaped corners and decorated all-over with finely engraved borders of stylised wheatears, tied ribbons and feather banding. The main dial with Roman hours and blued steel trefoil hands within a minute track, signed below VI and set above three subsidiaries for alarm, day (in English) and date, all with matching trefoil hands and set within an engraved foliate scroll mask. The spring barrel movement with gilt platform for the brass three-arm balance with compensating screws and jewelled duplex escapement, rack striking the hours and quarters on two bells and hammers. The strike/silent lever is set on the backplate with the engraved options 'Striking' or 'Stillness'. Ticking, striking both the hours and the quarters. Operational repeat, and alarm trains, together with a double ended key.
The elaborately engraved case with shaped and facetted handle above the large glazed inspection panel over three bevelled glass panels, the rear door solid and sliding upwards in a pair of runners to reveal the winding and setting squares, raised on a plinth base with shaped corners and decorated all-over with finely engraved borders of stylised wheatears, tied ribbons and feather banding. The main dial with Roman hours and blued steel trefoil hands within a minute track, signed below VI and set above three subsidiaries for alarm, day (in English) and date, all with matching trefoil hands and set within an engraved foliate scroll mask. The spring barrel movement with gilt platform for the brass three-arm balance with compensating screws and jewelled duplex escapement, rack striking the hours and quarters on two bells and hammers. The strike/silent lever is set on the backplate with the engraved options 'Striking' or 'Stillness'. Ticking, striking both the hours and the quarters. Operational repeat, and alarm trains, together with a double ended key.
Footnotes
This clock, or an identical one, is referenced in Carriage Clocks Their History and Development by Charles Allix and Peter Bonnert on page 432. Extant examples survive, not only of two other carriage clocks by Beguin, but also a handful of mantel clocks, including a skeleton clock.
In 1870, he was recorded as working on the Rue Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris.
The duplex escapement is usually seen in early Carriage clocks, being supplanted later by the lever and cylinder. However, in the early years of French carriage clock manufacturing the duplex escapement was regarded as the epitome of quality.
Additional information
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