100th Auction

2019/11/15

Lot 28

Jean-Pierre Tavernier, Paris, 81 mm, 411 g, circa 1765
A historically important early navigation deck chronometer of museum quality with cylinder escapement, so called "Montre de Marine"
Case: brass, firegilt. Dial: enamel. Movm.: brass full plate movement, firegilt, chain/fusee, balance stop device, three-arm steel balance, oversized brass cylinder wheel, fine florally engraved, pierced balance cock.
A chronometer of such outstanding design and quality must be regarded as predecessor of the marine chronometers developed later, such as the work of Arnold or Le Roy. Presumably dating from a time when Harrison had finally won the reward for calculating longitude at sea from the Board of Longitude, this timepiece was obviously not yet fitted with the spring detent escapement, which John Arnold would eventually invent. Instead, this movement uses a cylinder escapement with a steel cylinder and a 60-teeth wheel, which results in a jumping second (seconde morte) and a correspondingly slow beat of the 45 mm balance. Asecond gear wheel sits on the spindle of the escapement wheel and interacts with the balance locking lever. The execution of the construction attests to Tavernier’s remarkable skills and the immaculate clock face with its beautiful poker & beetle hands is a feast for the eyes. The movement is unsigned but the inside of the magnificent balance cock bears the initials of the maker J. P. T. The retaining spring to prevent removal of the movement can be set with a special key by means of a device on the upper work plate. It is possible that it was such a timepiece Tavernier presented to the Académie des Sciences in 1766 as his ship's watch, which is recorded in the Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences of 1767.
Jean-Pierre Tavernier was born in 1714 and became a master in 1746. He specialized in small, portable watches but also published tables on the equation of time. He died in 1795; his sons Louis, Etienne and Pierre Benjamin worked as watch- and casemakers in Paris as well.

Sold

estimated
42.00060.000 €
Price realized
55.000 €