Lot Essay
The movement is signed under the dial by L. Raby with a crown, and numbered 966. Loomes and Tardy both list a Louis Raby, on the Bd. des Italiens (succeda a A. Benoit a Versailles) and dates given are 1810 and 1855.
TWO CLOCK WATCHES
A striking system originally called "Dutch Striking" was first introduced to clockmaking in 1657-75. In addition to striking the hours of the day on one bell, the "Dutch Strike" also chimed the half hour on two bells; this half-hour strike was a melodious and unusual feature on seventeenth century clocks. This system later developed into the full chiming function that has been called "Grande Sonnerie" since 1700, in which both the hour and the quarter hours are struck every 15 minutes of the day. "Petite Sonnerie" is a simpler variation of the "Grande" in which the quarter hours are struck at the quarters, but the hour is struck only at the o'clock.
As horology progressed to smaller, portable, and more convenient timepieces the Petite and Grande Sonnerie striking system was incorporated first into table clocks and then into carriage clocks, although always as a very expensive and rare feature. Abraham Louis Breguet (1747-1823) is the acknowledged master creationist of small clocks with this complicated feature. For a pocket watch to contain this intricate mechanism requires the superb design and engineering skills of the most accomplished of craftsmen. Two such watchmakers are exhibited here.
Little is known in detail about Louis Raby. In the Olivier Collection at the Louvre there is a brass-cased watch signed Rabby a Paris c. 1720, and another similarly signed watch is illustrated in La Montre Francaise. This is presumably Francois Rabby, whose watch in the Guildhall Museum is listed in Baillie as c. 1745. Between Baillie and Tardy and one other spelling variation (Rabi) it can be pieced together that Louis Raby was the third or fourth generation of a watchmaking family working in Paris for approximately a century and a half.
Louis Raby is described by George Daniels in his definitive work The Art of Breguet as being one of Breguet's most talented pupils, surpassing even the Master in the execution of his own pendule sympathique (pg. 90). Raby is known to Tardy for his use of aluminum in a watch c. 1860; aluminum was an extremely rare and difficult metal by nineteenth century standards. Based on the admittedly slim evidence of these two known pieces, it would seem that Louis Raby had a taste for the experimental and the showy. In these terms Lot 206 is a characteristic example of his bravura watchmaking.
Louis Audemars (1782-1833) founded his watchmaking firm in 1811 in the Valle de Joux. While no direct link between Louis and A.L. Breguet has been substantiated, Paul Chamberlain in It's About Time credits Mr. Audemars for creating in the Valle de Joux a "last stronghold" for Breguet-inspired "standards of exquisite workmanship and taste for complicated pieces".
Louis Audemars had seven sons. His last son, Charles-Henri, became director of the family business after his father's death. The firm continued to be called "Louis Audemars" until 1885. It was Jules-Louis Audemars, born in 1851, son of Charles-Henri's brother Francois-Louis, who became the founder in 1881 with with Edward-Auguste Piaget of the illustrious eponymous watchmaking firm still in existence today.
Lot 205, dated 1873, must be discussed as the work of that second-generation Audemars, Charles-Henri, or of his atelier. The awards engraved on the cuvette of this watch (listed below) adds important historical information to the little that has been previously documented about this son of Louis, or about the activities of the family firm during this period. That this watch is a perpetuation of the highest quality of watchmaking as established by the firm's founder early in the century is self-evident.
Medals Awarded at the Exhibitions of:
London 1851-1862
New York 1853
Paris 1855
Vienna 1873
1st Prize Medal Awarded at Paris in 1856, 1863
by the French National Academy
Literature
Charles Allix and Peter Bonnert, Carriage Clocks, London, 1974
Daniel Aubert, Montres et Horologers exceptionnels de la Valle de Joux, Neuchatel, 1993
Catherine Cardinal, Catalogue des Montres du Musee du Louvre, Paris, 1984
Paul M. Chamberlain, It's About Time, London, 1978
Adolphe Chapiro, La Montre Francaise, Paris, 1991
Camerer Cuss, Antique Watches, London, 1976
M. Cutmore, Watches 1850-1980, London, 1989
George Daniels, The Art of Breguet, London, 1975
Britten, Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers, New York, 1973
Brunner, Pfieffer-Belli, Wehrli, Audemars Piguet, Munchen, 1993
TWO CLOCK WATCHES
A striking system originally called "Dutch Striking" was first introduced to clockmaking in 1657-75. In addition to striking the hours of the day on one bell, the "Dutch Strike" also chimed the half hour on two bells; this half-hour strike was a melodious and unusual feature on seventeenth century clocks. This system later developed into the full chiming function that has been called "Grande Sonnerie" since 1700, in which both the hour and the quarter hours are struck every 15 minutes of the day. "Petite Sonnerie" is a simpler variation of the "Grande" in which the quarter hours are struck at the quarters, but the hour is struck only at the o'clock.
As horology progressed to smaller, portable, and more convenient timepieces the Petite and Grande Sonnerie striking system was incorporated first into table clocks and then into carriage clocks, although always as a very expensive and rare feature. Abraham Louis Breguet (1747-1823) is the acknowledged master creationist of small clocks with this complicated feature. For a pocket watch to contain this intricate mechanism requires the superb design and engineering skills of the most accomplished of craftsmen. Two such watchmakers are exhibited here.
Little is known in detail about Louis Raby. In the Olivier Collection at the Louvre there is a brass-cased watch signed Rabby a Paris c. 1720, and another similarly signed watch is illustrated in La Montre Francaise. This is presumably Francois Rabby, whose watch in the Guildhall Museum is listed in Baillie as c. 1745. Between Baillie and Tardy and one other spelling variation (Rabi) it can be pieced together that Louis Raby was the third or fourth generation of a watchmaking family working in Paris for approximately a century and a half.
Louis Raby is described by George Daniels in his definitive work The Art of Breguet as being one of Breguet's most talented pupils, surpassing even the Master in the execution of his own pendule sympathique (pg. 90). Raby is known to Tardy for his use of aluminum in a watch c. 1860; aluminum was an extremely rare and difficult metal by nineteenth century standards. Based on the admittedly slim evidence of these two known pieces, it would seem that Louis Raby had a taste for the experimental and the showy. In these terms Lot 206 is a characteristic example of his bravura watchmaking.
Louis Audemars (1782-1833) founded his watchmaking firm in 1811 in the Valle de Joux. While no direct link between Louis and A.L. Breguet has been substantiated, Paul Chamberlain in It's About Time credits Mr. Audemars for creating in the Valle de Joux a "last stronghold" for Breguet-inspired "standards of exquisite workmanship and taste for complicated pieces".
Louis Audemars had seven sons. His last son, Charles-Henri, became director of the family business after his father's death. The firm continued to be called "Louis Audemars" until 1885. It was Jules-Louis Audemars, born in 1851, son of Charles-Henri's brother Francois-Louis, who became the founder in 1881 with with Edward-Auguste Piaget of the illustrious eponymous watchmaking firm still in existence today.
Lot 205, dated 1873, must be discussed as the work of that second-generation Audemars, Charles-Henri, or of his atelier. The awards engraved on the cuvette of this watch (listed below) adds important historical information to the little that has been previously documented about this son of Louis, or about the activities of the family firm during this period. That this watch is a perpetuation of the highest quality of watchmaking as established by the firm's founder early in the century is self-evident.
Medals Awarded at the Exhibitions of:
London 1851-1862
New York 1853
Paris 1855
Vienna 1873
1st Prize Medal Awarded at Paris in 1856, 1863
by the French National Academy
Literature
Charles Allix and Peter Bonnert, Carriage Clocks, London, 1974
Daniel Aubert, Montres et Horologers exceptionnels de la Valle de Joux, Neuchatel, 1993
Catherine Cardinal, Catalogue des Montres du Musee du Louvre, Paris, 1984
Paul M. Chamberlain, It's About Time, London, 1978
Adolphe Chapiro, La Montre Francaise, Paris, 1991
Camerer Cuss, Antique Watches, London, 1976
M. Cutmore, Watches 1850-1980, London, 1989
George Daniels, The Art of Breguet, London, 1975
Britten, Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers, New York, 1973
Brunner, Pfieffer-Belli, Wehrli, Audemars Piguet, Munchen, 1993