THE MOVEMENT BY BREGUET ET FILS, NO. 2779, CIRCA 1815, IN LATER CASE, NO. 247, SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY

According to the Breguet archive, this clock, described as a 'pendule à quatres parties', was first sold on 29 May 1814 to the duc de Fernan Nunez for FF2,400. Subsequently taken back by Breguet, it was re-sold on 27 March 1818 to 'Son Altesse le Prince Wellington' (presumably the Duke of Wellington), again for FF2,400. It was returned to the Breguet workshop in 1870, when owned by a Monsieur Spiers of 13 rue de la Paix, Paris, at which time it was in its present (replaced) case. The original case would almost certainly have been mahogany and the dial enamel, of the third series type illustrated by George Daniels in The Art of Breguet, London, 1974, p. 205. Why and by whom the alteration was made is not known but it is interesting to note that the case is numbered and well made, with its designer having made sure to highlight the escapement and also to create a sound fret for the (now missing) alarm.