Lot 253

Gaudron à Paris, 410 x 270 x 150 mm, circa 1690
A French Louis XIV "pendule religieuse" with half hour/hour strike, created during the experimental period of the early pendulum clocks; in a typical "tête du poupée"-style case developed by André Charles Boulle
Case: ebony veneered, brass inlays, glazed front door, 1 hammer / 1 bell. Dial: gilt brass chapter ring with inlaid radial Roman hours and Arabic minutes set on a black velvet surround, finely cut hands. Hinged Repoussé cartouche with signature enamel plaque below covering an aperture for the controlling of the pendulum. Movm.: rectangular brass full plate movement, signed, 2 barrels, locking plate, verge escapement, short pendulum with silk string suspension and cyclodial cheeks.
The typical convex-shaped Louis XIV-style case rests on an integrated rectangular, moulded base. The walls are veneered and decorated with geometric brass inlays. The bell on top is concealed by the curved and profiled ornamental gable.
Antoine Gaudron à Paris was born in Blois around 1640; he eventually moved to Paris and became a master in Saint-Germain des Près in 1665. In 1698 he and his sons established a company that traded among other things in watches and clocks, jewellery, bronzes and porcelain. There are many marvellous pocket watches and table clocks by Gaudron with cases that were created by the finest ebonistes of his time such as André-Charles Boulle. Gaudron is known as one of the first makers in Paris to have built pendulum clocks. During the controversy over the equation of time, his son Pierre claimed that his father had created the first equation clock in 1688. Antoine Gaudron died in 1714, a wealthy man of excellent repute.

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