A FRENCH EXPERIMENTAL EARLY GRANDE SONNERIE STRIKING CHRONOMETER CARRIAGE CLOCK

Details
A FRENCH EXPERIMENTAL EARLY GRANDE SONNERIE STRIKING CHRONOMETER CARRIAGE CLOCK
Raingo Frères, Paris

the one-piece case with sliding rear door and top glass, the silvered engraved dial signed Raingo Freres Paris, with Roman chapter ring and blued trefoil hands, alarm ring below, the twin going barrel movement with Earnshaw-type escapement with spring secured at the foot within an adjustable brass clamp assembly, cut bimetallic balance with segmental heat compensation weights, blued helical spring with bridged balance-cock, jewelled discharging and impulse rollers, the strike on two bells on the backplate with unusual three-position selection slide at the top front of the case engraved with the abreviated strike sequences GS . PS . S . on the dial just beneath with repeat activated when slid to the far left, the plain backplate numbered 2
6in. (15.5cm.) high

Lot Essay

The form of grande sonnerie strike employed on this clock was one that obviously never found popularity with other clockmakers. It was, one suspects, an attempt by Raingo to make the strike selection more accessible by positioning the strike selection slide on the dial as opposed to the more normal place in the base. The racks and levers are are marked and screwed in such a way as to suggest that this is a prototype and there is further evidence suggesting that Raingo had exceeding difficulty in setting the cam and lever system for the quarter hammer. His confidence in the clock however is underlined by employing a chronometer platform escapement and this in turn suggests that the clock was perhaps given exhibitin status

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