Live Auction 7864500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe
A LOUIS XVIII ACAJOU MOUCHETÉ MAHOGANY MONTH-GOING SIDEREAL AND MEAN TIME ASTRONOMICAL WALL REGULATOR
Lot 103 THE PROPERTY OF A COLLECTOR (LOTS 102 & 103)

A LOUIS XVIII ACAJOU MOUCHETÉ MAHOGANY MONTH-GOING SIDEREAL AND MEAN TIME ASTRONOMICAL WALL REGULATOR

BREGUET ET FILS, PARIS, NO. 3172. CIRCA 1823

Closed8 July 2010

Price Realised

GBP 46,850

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A LOUIS XVIII ACAJOU MOUCHETÉ MAHOGANY MONTH-GOING SIDEREAL AND MEAN TIME ASTRONOMICAL WALL REGULATOR
BREGUET ET FILS, PARIS, NO. 3172. CIRCA 1823
CASE: backboard with detachable glazed-front rectangular case with brass handles DIAL: acanthus cast ormolu bezel to 5½ in. diameter white enamel dial with inner concentric hour ring and signed 'Breguet & Fils', blued steel Breguet main hands, counterpoised seconds hand (replaced) MOVEMENT: with substantial plates, Harrison's maintaining power, dead beat escapement to back plate with adjustable pallets and fine beat adjustment to two-piece crutch, signed 'Breguet et Fils/No. 3172', in brass drum case and suspended from backboard on substantial brass and lead plate with fine adjustable pendulum suspension and three large adjustment screws; nine-rod steel and brass gridiron pendulum with calibrated rating nut to centre of brass-cased bob, engraved above 'TEMS SIDERAL TEMS MOYEN' for either rating system; winding key
59½ in. (151 cm.) high; 13 5/8 in. (34.5 cm) wide; 9½ in. (24 cm.) deep

Purchased by M. de Bruges from Breguet on 17 June 1823 for 1600 francs. Sotheby's London, 18 December 1996, lot 96.

Specialist note

Regulators such as this were designed to be portable. They were intended for both astronomical and survey purposes; hence the bob on the present clock is calibrated for both mean and sidereal time and it can be quickly adjusted so that the clock can be rated according to either system. For ease of transport the cases have handles and the movement, with its heavy bracket, can be placed on the wall independently of the case. A similar clock, No. 3300, is illustrated in Tardy, French Clocks, Vol. II, Paris, 1981, p. 343 and another, No. 705, with solid front panel, is illustrated in Roberts p. 63. For Breguet see also lots 98, 99 and 102.