Lot 476: A Louis XIV ebony, walnut and brass-mounted striking religieuse

A Louis XIV ebony, walnut and brass-mounted striking religieuse
Claude Raillard, Paris. Circa 1665
The case with cast brass foliate cresting and glazed side panels, the walnut rear door with ebony line inlay, the upper rear with brass hanging loops, the side-positioned front door catch operated by the winding key, on brass bun feet, the dial opening on pins and with velvet-covered brass plate, engraved gilt-brass Roman chapter ring with outer Arabic minutes, decorative brass collet to the winding square, pierced and engraved hands, an engraved gilt-brass hanging cartouche below signed Claude Raillard/Paris, rising to reveal pendulum-starting aperture, the movement with arched plates joined by four back-pinned ringed vase-shaped pillars, single barrel, three spoke wheelwork, verge escapement with silk suspension and cycloidal cheeks, calibrated countwheel, striking hours and half hours on bell above the case; pendulum
41.5 cm. high

Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,000. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Dr R Plomp, Spring-driven Dutch Pendulum Clocks 1657-1710 , Schiedam, 1979, pp.40-45
Tardy, French Clocks, Clocks the World Over , Vol.I, Paris, 1981, pp.130-131
Van den Ende, van Kersen, van Kersen-Halbertsma, Taylor & Taylor, Huygens' Legacy, The Golden Age of the Pendulum Clock , Frome, 2004, pp.210-213.
H.M. Vehmeyer, Clocks, Their Origin and Development 1320-1880 , Vol.II, Gent, 2004, pp.792-795
Dr R Plomp, 'Dutch Influences in French Clockmaking and Vice-Versa in the Latter Half of the Seventeenth Century', Antiquarian Horology, Vol.IX, No.1, December 1974, pp.28-45
Claude Raillard (b.?-1708) was the son of one clockmaker and father to another, both also called Claude. In 1665 he supplied Cardinal Mazarin with a clock and a watch for 450 livres. He was garde-visiteur in Paris 1675-1677 and 1681-1682. The Parisian clockmakers' guild was governed by the Jurande , comprising four members known as Jurés or garde-visiteurs , elected for two years at a time. For a fuller account see Jean-Dominique Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps , Geneva, 1996, pp.15-16.
A tortoiseshell religieuse by Raillard was sold Sotheby's Amsterdam, Clocks, Watches and Wristwatches , 7 June 2005, lot 20. It is interesting to compare the cresting on the present clock with comparable examples on Dutch clocks of the period; on French clocks the crestings are cast brass and on Dutch clocks they are repoussé (see Plomp p.42). Examples by other French clockmakers of the period such as Nicolas Hanet (b.?-1723) and Henri Martinot (1646-1725) can be seen in Vehmeyer (pp.792-795) and Van den Ende et alia (pp.108-109).