97th Auction

2018/5/12

Lot 88

Isaac Thuret à Paris, Height 250 mm, circa 1675
An important Louis XIV early balance spring hour and half hour striking traveling clock, in a rare puristic but typical "tête du poupée"-style case developed by André Charles Boulle
Case: ebonized wood. Dial: gilt brass, applied silvered chapter ring, signed. Movm.: lyre-shaped brass full plate movement, 2 barrels for going and striking trains, 1 hammer / 1 bell, count wheel, verge escapement, large three-arm steel balance, flat blued balance spring.
Base and head piece of the ebonised, lyre-shaped Louis XIV case are decorated with moulding; a bell sits on the top of the case. The gilded brass dial is lyre-shaped too and ornamented with exquisite engraved acanthus, volutes and a garland of flowers. Its lower part is rectangular in the form of a signature plaque similar to those of the early "religieuse" pendulum clocks and bears the signature "Thuret à Paris". The gilded brass dial holds a silvered chapter ring with Roman Champlevé hours. The cut out section for regulating the hairspring is visible in the top part of the clock.
Isaac Thuret (1649-1706) was one of the most important French makers. In 1684 Thuret became Horloger du Roi (Louis XIV) and Horloger de l'Observatoire de Paris and in 1686 was established in the Galeries du Louvre. He maintained the clocks in the Fontainebleau Palace and between 1689 and 1694 also looked after the clocks in the Paris oberservatory and of the Académie des Sciences. On January 22, 1675, he made a watch with the first balance spring for Huygens, pretending it to be his own invention. Later he apologized for this to Huygens. Thuret also made clocks with verge escapement, cycloidal cheeks and seconds-pendulum for Huygens, one of which is preserved in the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, He also made a great number of "religieuses".
Lit.: H.B. Vehmeyer "Clocks their origin and development 1320-1880", vol II, Wilsele 2004, page 994.
Doll's head clocks, often known by their French name "tête du poupée", were popular in the later half of Louis XIV's reign. They are named for their profile which resembles a head and shoulders. The doll's head clock is almost always ornamented with Boulle marquetry.
We presented a similar clock by Isaac Thuret which was decorated with Boulle Marquetry during our 95th auction in May 2017 (lot 363). Another similar clock by Isaac Thuret is illustrated and described in H.M. Vehmeyer "Clocks their origin and development 1320-1880", vol II, Wilsele 2004, p 836f.

Sold

estimated
7.00012.000 €
Price realized
9.300 €