Henri Robert Belgian Slate Perpetual Calendar Mantel Clock

Description:

Henri Robert Belgian Slate Perpetual Calendar Mantel Clock, Paris, 1839, top mounted turret-type brass two-week duration movement engraved on the brass floor Robert Horloger Boulevard St. Denis 19 Exhibition 1839, half seconds beating pendulum with top rating nut, jeweled dead-beat escapement, count wheel strike and open center silvered brass dial with Roman numerals and blued steel Breguet-type hands, all enclosed under a glass shade, the lower silvered perpetual calendar dial with outer day-of-the month, middle month-of-the year and inner day-of-the-week rings with three concentric hands in the same form as the timekeeping dial, round plate calendar movement visible through the center of the dial with steel levers and springs to perform the perpetual calendar functions, ht. 20 1/2 in.

According to Paul M. Chamberlain, It's About Time, p. 363, Henri Robert (b. 1794-1874) was greatly influenced and probably worked for the renowned horologist, Abraham Louis Breguet (1748-1823) of Paris and was known to have made exquisite clocks and watches. A copy of Henri Robert, Etudes sur Diverses Questions D' Horlogerie published in Paris in 1852 and extensive archive accompanies the clock. According to research conducted on this archive by clock and watch conservator John Kovacik, Little Falls, New York, the clock was likely exhibited at the Exposition des Produits de L'Industrie Francaise in 1839 and is related to a similar example sold at Christies London, December 9, 2010, lot 229. The present clock is illustrated and discussed in F. B. Royer-Collard, Skeleton Clocks, p. 72.
Estimate $20,000-25,000

John Kovacik performed recent conservation on this clock with his report available. Old lacquered surface on shade frame with traces of gilding, movement cleaned and lacquered and both mainsprings signed and dated 1839.

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