Live Auction 7822Cabinet d'un Amateur Européen
Christie’s roundel
Lot 341

A LOUIS PHILIPPE TABLE REGULATOR WITH CHRONOMETER ESCAPEMENT, REMONTOIRE AND EQUATION OF TIME, IN EXHIBITION CASE

ROBERT. CIRCA 1839

Closed9 December 2009

Estimate

GBP 18,000–25,000

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A LOUIS PHILIPPE TABLE REGULATOR WITH CHRONOMETER ESCAPEMENT, REMONTOIRE AND EQUATION OF TIME, IN EXHIBITION CASE
ROBERT. CIRCA 1839
CASE: the fully glazed gilt-brass gorge case with fastening bolts to the top, the plinth inscribed at the front 'ROBERT, Horloger/Boulevart St. Denis, 19/EXPOSITION DE 1839'; regilt DIAL: the dead silvered and engraved main chapter disc with blued steel Breguet-type hands and with equation of time indication to its centre, with ormolu bezel and set within a conforming silvered seconds ring with blued steel hand, visible escapement to the centre (see below), with silvered and engraved revolving year calendar ring above the plates, a skeletonised equation of time cam behind, showing the date on a fixed blued steel hand MOVEMENT: with rectangular plates joined by four double-screwed pillars, twin going barrels and one minute remontoire, pivoted detent escapement with jewelled impulse pallet, pivoted jewelled detent, the front plate signed 'Robert horloger BOULEVART ST DENIS 19', the movement secured to the case with four brackets; the front-suspended and tapered gridiron pendulum with glazed bimetallic thermometer to its gilt-brass bob
28½ in. (72 cm.) high; 10½ in. (27 cm.) wide; 7 in. (18 cm.) deep

The property of a Connecticut private collector, Sotheby's New York, 6 June 1990, lot 170 ($50,600).

Specialist note

Probably Henri Robert (1795-1874), who studied under both Abraham-Louis Breguet and Louis Frédérique Perrelet before setting up in the Rue de Valois (Palais-Royal) in 1832. Subsequently he was at Rue du Coq (1834), Rue Richelieu (1845), Rue Chabanais (1860); and at Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1867, when he was joined by his son, also Henri. He was Horloger de la Marine in 1847 and the author of a number of reference works on horology. A regulateur de parquet striking solar seconds by Henri Robert was sold Christie's London, 1 July 2005, lot 88 (£50,400). Robert exhibited at the Exposition of 1839 but his address was given as Rue du Coq. Tardy (French Clocks, part III, Paris, 1981, p. 57) shows a drawing of a half seconds beating table regulator being offered by Henri Robert for 250 francs in 1834.
A turret clock style skeleton clock signed 'Robert Boulevard St Denis' was sold by Cottone New York, 28 April 2006, lot 78 ($36,300) and is illustrated in F.B. Royer-Collard, Skeleton Clocks, London, 1969, p.72. Tardy records Robert of Boulevard St Denis as a separate entry to those of Henri Robert (father and son), writing 'Il fit un régulateur'.