AN IMPORTANT BELGIAN ORMOLU AND BLACK MARBLE COMPLICATED ASTRONOMICAL WORLD-TIME SKELETON CLOCK

Details

AN IMPORTANT BELGIAN ORMOLU AND BLACK MARBLE COMPLICATED ASTRONOMICAL WORLD-TIME SKELETON CLOCK
Sarton, circa 1820

the ormolu bezel cast with sunbursts and foliate beading framing a white enamel Roman and Arabic chapter disc signed Sarton above VI, finely pierced blued steel hour and minute hands, counterpoised sweep centre seconds hand, central subsidiary calendar rings for date, day of week with corresponding deity and month with corresponding number of days all with blued steel serpentine arrowhead hands, the lunar dial displaying age and phase of moon flanked by the sun dial indicating the times of sunrise and sunset with corresponding shutters, the world-time dial above with static inner ring painted with 24-hour chapters calibrated VII to VI in gilt paint and similarly in black indicating day and night hours, the outer revolving ring finely painted with 52 locations around the world, the movement with triangular plates and twin going barrels; the going train with pinwheel escapement and steel-suspended grid-iron pendulum, strike train with outside countwheel strike on bell above via hammer on vertically positioned arbor, the whole on tapering columns supported on a D-ended rectangular black marble plinth on milled toupie feet
23¾in. (60.5cm.) high

Literature

Derek Roberts, Continental and American Skeleton Clocks, Schiffer, 1989, p.p. 178, figs. 175a, b, c.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Edward G. Aghit, Hubert Sarton of Liege, a Master Belgian Clockmaker, Antiquarian Horology, December, 1972, p.p. 42-54.

Lot Essay

Hubert Sarton, 1748-1828, was Belgium's greatest clockmaker. Born in Liege, he apprenticed to his uncle, Dieudonne Sarton in 1762 and by 1768 was working at Pierre Leroy's workshop in Paris. In 1772 Sarton was appointed Court Mechanic to Duke Charles Alexander, Prince of Lorraine. He apparently flourished in this position and was given guidance by the Austrian Prince Archbishop François Charles Alexander de Velbrock whose Court contacts no doubt helped Sarton a good deal and by 1783 he had been appointed City Counseller and Treasurer.

The present world time clock is a more complicated variant of his 4-dial clocks. The latters' circular plated movements have been replaced by more sturdy and larger triangular plates becoming a more satisfactory solution horologically and aesthetically.

An identical clock exists with M. René Sarton, a direct descendant, and another in the Haussner Restaurant, Baltimore, U.S.A.

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