Lot 306

Julien Le Roy à Paris, 106 mm, 1100 g, circa 1800
A coach clock with quarter hour / hour repeater
Case: silver, engraved, rear bell. Dial: enamel. Movm.: full plate movement, chain/fusee, 2 hammers, verge escapement, three-arm brass balance.
The back is engraved with the alliance coat of arms of two noble families.
Julien Le Roy (1686-1759) was one of the most outstanding clock- and watchmakers of his time and certainly played a decisive part in establishing the leading role French clockmaking had in the 18th century. He became a master in 1713, presented an equation clock to the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1717, and was appointed clockmaker to the king in 1739 (with his own rooms at the Louvre). Le Roy invented the adjustable bracket for the verge escapement wheel ("potence"), the repetition strike on springs instead of bells for pocket watches, and the "all-or-nothing" piece for repeating watches. His inventions and improvements were of such extreme importance that most watchmakers adopted them promptly for their own pieces. Later Le Roy was director of the Société des Arts; he and his son supplied the entries on watches and clocks in the encyclopaedia compiled by Diderot and d'Alembert.