Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 203

Jerome Martinot, Paris. Made circa 1700. Very fine, Louis XIV, ormolu-mounted tortoiseshell and brass Boulle marquetry hour and half-hour striking, pull-wound quarter-repeating bracket clock with matching bracket.

C. Regence form with arched cornice surmounted by ormolu figure of a child in classical drapery holding aloft a bird, ormolu border and four urn finials, four further flambeau finials above a lambrequin and fleur-de-lys cornice, the body of the case glazed on three sides, the canted corners with female caryatid mounts, raised on a scroll base with a mask of Hercules draped in the lion's pelt above a lambrequin in the center, on ormolu toupie feet; the whole finely veneered in marquetry in brass on grounds of red tortoiseshell forming strapwork and foliate scrolls, masks and cornucopiae, matching bracket composed of three struts mounted with gilt female-mask and flower mounts, leaf and fruit terminal. D. Ormolu with white enamelled cartouches with radial blue Roman numerals, outer minutes with every minute numbered, chased and engraved foliate scroll center, gilt bronze mask below decorated with two sphinxes and foliate scrolls. Well-pierced blued steel hands. M. Rectangular, 140 x 130 mm, brass, verge escapement, steel rod pendulum with silk suspension, count wheel on the back plate, pullrepeat mechanism, striking and repeating on three bells with four hammers. Dial, mask and movement signed. Dim. Height 65 cm (with bracket 91cm), bracket width 36 cm.