A Historically Important French, Louis XV Long-case, by Antoine Thiout, circa 1738

A Historically Important French, Louis XV Long-case, by Antoine Thiout, circa 1738

Regence-Louis XV, ormolu mounted, kingwood, banded marquetry case, retaining Thiout's original equation table inside case door, hand signed and dated 1738. The engraved and silvered dial, signed 'Thiout Laine, Paris', displays the date of the month in a dial aperture. Solar hours and minutes with pierced and engraved brass hands, a blued-steel hand indicating mean minutes. Seconds are indicated on a double 30 second sector with a blued and stepped hand. Eight-day, striking movement has a Bethune's twin pallet escapement of Thiout's design to conform to the long second's pendulum. Time and strike movement strikes solar time on a bell without an equation cam.

Commentary: This mechanism was presented to the Royal Academy by Thiout in 1740 and described and displayed in his important 'Traite de L'Horlogerie' in 1741. As this clock was extant in 1740, there is a likely hood that this may have been the actual movement presented to the Royal Academy and is an elegant and important classical French Regulateur de Parguet.

Ht. 6 ft 10 in. W 18 in. D 10 in.

Provenance: Jim Cipra, Horological Consultant, Long Beach, California.
The collection of Dr. William Thomas, Naples, Florida.

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Condition Report: The French were quite fastidious in regard to technology and preferred the most up to date escapements in their clocks. This piece was no exception and it had been upgraded with a Graham dead beat escapement, the technology of the day.