A RARE FRENCH GILT BRASS KEYLESS CARRIAGE CLOCK

A RARE FRENCH GILT BRASS KEYLESS CARRIAGE CLOCK

BY LE ROY & FILS, LATE 19TH / EARLY 20TH CENTURY

the brass eight day movement with repeat and alarm mechanisms, the silvered platform lever escapement wound via a handle to the underside, stamped 'Le Roy & Fils, Patent No.9501, striking the half hours on a gong, the backplate stamped with the serial number '10313', the enamelled dial with black Roman hour and Arabic minute numerals above a subsidiary alarm dial, inscribed 'Le Roy & Fils, 57 New Bond Street, Made in France', the gorge case with bevelled glass panels and hinged handle, with an associated burgundy leather bound travelling case gilt stamped 'E.L.R. 1929' and with retailer's marks for 'Edward White, St James's, SW1' (2)

14cm high

Provenance

Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009)

The Trustees of Exbury House

Catalogue Note

Keyless or bottom winding clock movements were an innovation patented by Le Roy et Fils. The going and striking trains are wound alternately by winding the fixed key first in one direction and then the other. This avoids the need for a separate key and also enables both winding functions to take place at once. For a full discussion, see Alix and Bonnert, Carriage Clocks, their History and Development, pp.219-221, they state that 'examples with bottom-winding seem without exception to have been prior to the year 1900. Perhaps significantly, the 57 New Bond St. address, with or without the Palais Royal, will usually if not always be found on bottom-winding clocks.'