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A fine Empire ormolu, brass and Spanish brocatelle marble month-going astronomical skeleton clock

VERNEUIL. CIRCA 1810

Details

A fine Empire ormolu, brass and Spanish brocatelle marble month-going astronomical skeleton clock
Verneuil. Circa 1810
With spiral-beaded ormolu bezel to the white enamel Roman chapter ring signed Verneuil h.er, M.ien, gilt guilloché centre set with an enamel seconds disc, blued steel Breguet hands, conforming bezel to the painted enamel moonphase above, with moons finely decorated en grisaille and ring calibrated for its age, subsidiary calendar rings below for the day (with its symbol), date and month/zodiac, hands of blued steel, the movement with pierced-out inverted Y-shaped plates and spring barrels with large great wheels, the going train with pinwheel escapement regulated by a gridiron pendulum positioned above the clock, with adjustable crutchpiece and fronted by a thermometer with white enamel scale inscribed Elementa Suis Propriis Armis Victa, with countwheel strike on bell positioned on the back plate, the whole resting on a stepped rectangular brocatelle marble base with ormolu gallery mount matching the bezels and on brass bun feet, the movement frame on brass blocks with milled levelling knobs; original velvet-covered plinth and original glass dome (cracked)
28½ in. (72.5 cm.) high, excluding plinth and dome

Provenance

Christie's London, 12 June 1996, lot 273.
From the collection of Léon Hatot

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Derek Roberts, Continental and American Skeleton Clocks, Schiffer, 1989, pp.48-60.
Tardy records two Verneuils, one at 42 Rue St Honoré and another (Verneuil Jeune) at Rue du Contrat Social in 1806 and at Faubourg St-Martin in 1815. It is probable that the present clock was made by the former.
Verneuil specialised in exceptional skeleton clocks, all of which bear a close family resemblance. Of varying complexity, they mostly include calendar work which is laid out in a similar way. Some have silvered dials and some white enamel as on the present example, and the majority rest on marble plinths. The present clock may be considered one of the finest of his known oeuvre, with its superb gridiron pendulum swinging elegantly above the plates.

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