Live Auction 2762Treasures of France
A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD QUARTER STRIKING REGULATEUR
Lot 64

A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD QUARTER STRIKING REGULATEUR

CIRCA 1765, THE MOVEMENT BY JEAN-ANDRE LEPAUTE

Closed24 October 2012

Price Realised

USD 20,000

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A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD QUARTER STRIKING REGULATEUR
CIRCA 1765, THE MOVEMENT BY JEAN-ANDRE LEPAUTE
The circular white-enameled dial with Roman and Arabic chapters with pierced and chased hour and minute hands, signed LEPAUTE H. DU ROI/PARIS, the movement with skeletonized plates with rope drive to going train and mainspring barrel to strike train, pin wheel escapement with silk suspension and countwheel quarter striking on two bells, within a lyre-form case surmounted by an urn and a mask issuing acanthus leaves and draped with berried husk chains, the front door and sides chevron-veneered, the lenticle framed with cast C-scroll mounts surmounted by a scientific trophy over concave molded base with husk-cast garlands, the dial re-enameled, the back of the case inscribed twice in red chalk S...5-6 and in black pencil F. PECHE
41in. (210 cm.) high, 25in. (63.5 cm.) wide, 10in. (25.5 cm.) deep

Anonymous Sale; Christie's, New York, 23 October 1998, lot 87.

Specialist note

Jean-André Lepaute (1720-1789) and his brother Jean-Baptiste 1727-1802), were the original founders of a dynasty of Parisian clockmakers who all made a significant contribution to French horology. The sons of a blacksmith, it was Jean-André who broke the parental bonds first and set up the first workshop in Paris in 1740. Like other brilliant clockmakers, he quickly impressed the academia and made important contacts that were to shape his prosperous life. To this end his marriage was the greatest coup in that he married in 1761 Nicole Reine Etable de la Brire who was considered at the time one of the country's great academics, a most unusual accolade for a woman at that time.

The two brothers wisely took their nephews Pierre Henry and Pierre Bazile into apprenticeship thereby ensuring the company's prosperity. The company made the Paris city hall clock which had equation of time and showed day-by-day the sun's return to the meridian.