3,600 CHF
Special Escapement, Quarter Repeater Père Bouhelier, No. 751. Made circa 1830. Fine and rare, 18K gold, quarter-repeating pocket watch with special escapement. Four-body, “bassine et filets”, engine-turned and polished, engine-turned band. Hinged gilt metal cuvette. White enamel with radial Arabic numerals, outer minute divisions. Blued steel Breguet hands. 48 mm., frosted gilt, 6 jewels, standing barrel, special polished steel lateral lever escapement with elongated lever arm, the fork engaging a locking pin on the balance pivot, plain three-arm balance, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, repeating with two massive polished steel hammers on two gongs activated by a pullandtwist button in the pendant, polished steel repeating work under the dial. Cuvette signed. Diam. 53 mm. Notes Père Bouhelier A native of Saint Julien, a small village near Charquemont, in Franche Comte, where his surname was very common. Although mostly farmers, the population made cylinder escapements in winter-time, for both the French and the Swiss makers. It is interesting to note that the few watches known from this maker are all constructed with this very unusual calibre and all set with the same type of straightline lever escapement. Very few watches made by Père Bouhelier are known to exist. Two were discussed in Horlogerie Ancienne, bulletin of the A.N.C.1--I. A. Two others were sold by Antiquorum, Geneva: October 12, 1996, lot 239; May 14, 2006, lot 611. These watches were mad
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2009-10-04
