Dreweatts Donnington Priory Salerooms
Lot 108
A French Louis XIV ormolu mounted tortoiseshell bracket clock, Antoine Gaudron, Paris, circa 1700 The six back-pinned baluster pillar movement of two week duration with large spring barrels, verge escapement with silk suspension and cycloidal cheeks, and high position numbered countwheel to the upper right hand corner of the backplate for striking the hours and once at the half hour with a vertically pivoted hammer on a bell mounted within the top of the case, the backplate signed Gaudron A Paris to lower edge, the unusual shaped iron dial plate faced with pewter polished and lacquered to simulate mother-of-pearl and applied with twelve-piece white enamel Roman numeral cartouche chapter ring with fine pierced and engraved foliate pendant to every numeral, Arabic minutes to outer track and original steel hands above shaped pendulum aperture bordered with foliate cast mounts, the break-arch case with gilt urn finials to the acanthus corner-mounted ogee shaped upstand and foliate cast frieze emerging from the sides of the gilt cavetto moulded cornice, the canted front angles applied with fine scroll-cast female terms above acanthus open scrolls, the sides with brass-edged rectangular side windows and conforming terms to rear edges over swollen lower sections, the base edged with a gilt band interrupted by a pendant arch inset with foliate cast mount to apron, on acanthus cast feet, 53cm (21ins) high. Antoine Gaudron is recorded in Baillie, G.H. Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World as working from around 1675. In 1689 he was established at Place Dauphine at `La Perle` and then at `La Renommee` in 1709. He died a wealthy man in 1714. Two fine `Religieuse` spring clocks by him (including one with unique astronomical calendar) are illustrated in Plomp, Reinier Early French Pendulum Clocks 1658-1700 pages 80-3, the movement of the current lot, although slightly later, is remarkably similar to those pictured in figs 146 and 149. The manner in which the dial of the current lot is finished is particularly noteworthy. A pewter veneer is applied over the iron dial plate which is polished and finished in such a way as to simulate mother-of-pearl, forming the background onto which a finely engraved and pierced chapter ring is applied.
