99th Auction
2019/5/11
Lot 364
Edouard Léon Palis, Bordeaux, 890 x 980 x 650 mm, circa 1900
A remarkable French mantel clock "perpetuum motion" with electric drive - made for the World exhibition in Paris 1900
Case: brass, stepped mahogany wooden base. Dial: silvered chapter ring. Movm.: circular pierced brass plates, pin wheel escapement, going barrel, pendulum spring suspension, mercury compensation pendulum.
In this fabulous construction no less than 56 moving trapezoidal weights are intended to bring to life the age-old dream of the perpetual motion machine. Ostensibly the revolving motion uses a complicated lever system and a gear shaft to continuously drive a barrel - the complicated structure certainly creates a magnificent spectacle: The wheel with the tilting hammers is nearly a metre high, the brass arms land audibly on brass pins (rubber-cushioned today) and each impact is transmitted to the heavy wooden base. Two chains and a belt (as well as an electric motor, which somewhat disqualifies the concept of perpetual motion) complete the arrangement, flaunting the finely executed movement with its pinwheel escapement its centre.
The clock was probably built by Edouard Léon Palis, born in 1873 in Bordeaux as the son of a clockmaker. His father initially worked in Bordeaux and later in Caudéran, where Edouard would eventually also have a workshop and a photo studio. In 1903 he married the daughter of a jewellery dealer. He is thought to have described his clock and the perpetual motion mechanism in the magazine "La Nature" in 1902.
Described and illustrated in Derek Roberts: Mystery, Novelty and Fantasy Clocks, Atglen 1999, p. 106.
A remarkable French mantel clock "perpetuum motion" with electric drive - made for the World exhibition in Paris 1900
Case: brass, stepped mahogany wooden base. Dial: silvered chapter ring. Movm.: circular pierced brass plates, pin wheel escapement, going barrel, pendulum spring suspension, mercury compensation pendulum.
In this fabulous construction no less than 56 moving trapezoidal weights are intended to bring to life the age-old dream of the perpetual motion machine. Ostensibly the revolving motion uses a complicated lever system and a gear shaft to continuously drive a barrel - the complicated structure certainly creates a magnificent spectacle: The wheel with the tilting hammers is nearly a metre high, the brass arms land audibly on brass pins (rubber-cushioned today) and each impact is transmitted to the heavy wooden base. Two chains and a belt (as well as an electric motor, which somewhat disqualifies the concept of perpetual motion) complete the arrangement, flaunting the finely executed movement with its pinwheel escapement its centre.
The clock was probably built by Edouard Léon Palis, born in 1873 in Bordeaux as the son of a clockmaker. His father initially worked in Bordeaux and later in Caudéran, where Edouard would eventually also have a workshop and a photo studio. In 1903 he married the daughter of a jewellery dealer. He is thought to have described his clock and the perpetual motion mechanism in the magazine "La Nature" in 1902.
Described and illustrated in Derek Roberts: Mystery, Novelty and Fantasy Clocks, Atglen 1999, p. 106.
Sold
estimated
13.000—20.000 €
Price realized
10.000 €