A RARE AND UNUSUAL PASTE-SET GILT-BRASS ‘FERRIS-WHEEL’ CONSTANT FORCE FALLING BALL MANTEL TIMEPIECE WITH ANEROID BAROMETER AND THERMOMETER

Surmounted by a removable model of the Medici lion, above a stepped plinth with four finials, the pediment with a pierced motif band, above bevelled glazed doors and sides, the plinth with a pull-out drawer containing the spent balls, on bun feet, the 3 1/2in enamel dial with paste-set bezel,  foliate festoons and blue chapters, a circular recess at the XII showing the platform club-tooth lever balance, with another dial below within a paste-set bezel for the barometric pressure, a Fahrenheit enamel scale thermometer to the left side modelled as an obelisk, the movement numbered to the reverse 43 / 3230, with rectangular tapering plates, raised on a platform on scrolled feet, a large ‘ferris-wheel’ with paddles holding the balls which gives the power to the train

 54cm high

An identical version sold Dawsons, Maidenhead, 29 June 2023, lot 161 (£12,000 hammer).

Another sold Bonhams, New York, 16 October 2019, lot 101 ($15,075, inc. premium).

Charles Hour, an eminent horologist and founder member of La Chambre d'Horlogerie, was at 7 rue Sainte Anastace, Paris.  He exhibited a model of this clock at the Exposition Universelle, Paris in 1900, as reviewed by the eminent horologist Mathieu Planchon in the Revue Chronométrique that year (October 1900, pp. 153-157) (see image) as well as in other publications.

One of this model, gifted by the French Government, is in the Imperial Palace Collection and illustrated in their hardbound catalogue Timepieces in the Imperial Palace, Classics of the Forbidden City, edited by The Palace Museum, Beijing, 2014, illustrated on page 233, no. 155 (see lot illustrations for extract).

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Derek Roberts, Mystery, Novelty & Fantasy Clocks, Atglen, 1999, p.74.

Timepieces in the Imperial Palace, Classics of the Forbidden City, edited by The Palace Museum, Beijing, 2014, illustrated on page 233, no. 155 (see lot images).

*** Please note Import VAT at 5% is additionally payable on the hammer price.  Buyers from outside the UK are able to claim a refund of this on proof of export.

CONDITION REPORT

The gilt-brass case is in very good order and is likely to have been re-gilt?  The glass to the back door is damaged with multiple chips to its edges.  The front door glass has a very small chip to its right-hand corner, barely discernible.  The left side glass has a small chip to its upper left-hand corner.  The right-hand glass has a very small chip to its lower left-hand corner.

There are 15 heavy metal balls which all fit into the drawer.

The movement does tick but stops after around 10 minutes.  It’s quite oily and really requires a service.  The turned brass foot below the thermometer stand is of a different tone and looks to be a later replacement.  Hairline crack to dial and also a hairline crack to thermometer dial. The small horizontal arm (which holds the ball support by the ferris-wheel) on the top of the turned baluster upright to the right of the movement needs tightening.