Subasta Especial de Arte Colonial y Alta Época
Magnificent Empire watch in gilt and patinated bronze lasting eight days signed H.Robert-Horloger a la Reine on the white enamel dial. The dial has Roman numerals and gold-tone steel Breguet-style hands for the hours and minutes. Movement with an anchor escapement, silk thread suspension, striking a single bell, with external counting wheel. The extremely fine box represents the standing figure of Urania, muse of astronomy, with a feather in her left hand pointing to a starry globe decorated with the signs of the zodiac around its circumference. The globe rests on the backs of four putti on a pedestal, containing the sphere with a draped serpentParis, date c. 1820-30 Height 73 cm, width 50 cm, depth 22 cm. In addition to the prestigious places mentioned, There are clocks of this model in the Warsaw Castle and in the Bayerischen Nationalmuseum in Munich. The Parisian watchmaker Bailly (died after 1818) was one of the best of his day, and as such was awarded the title of Horloger de LL. mm. II. etRR (Watchmaker of Their Imperial and Royal Majesties). Working on the rue de Richelieu, he was with Lepaute one of the main suppliers of the Garde-Meuble. Bailly, who retired in 1818, was responsible for the maintenance of the clocks at Compiègne and the Trianones and is known to have used the cases of the greatest Parisian bronze makers, including Pierre-Philippe Thomire and Claude Galle, as well as Ferdinand Schwerdfeger, who supplied him with a case for a regulator surmounted by a globe and ringed with the zodiac on four sphinxes, similar to the current model (illustrated in Jean-Dominique Augarde, “Les Ouvriers du Temps”, 1996, p. 275, pl. 214). 275, p. 214). In addition to the Compiègne and Fontainebleau museums and the Grand Trianon, other Bailly de Versailles clocks can be seen in Paris, at the Garde-Meuble National and at the Louvre, Marmottan and Légion d’Honneur museums.
