PRECISION CLOCK WITH DATE, MOON PHASE AND REMONTOIRE Louis XVI/Directoire, Paris, circa 1800. The dial is signed “Le Brin à Paris.”

PRECISION CLOCK WITH DATE, MOON PHASE AND REMONTOIRE

Louis XVI/Directoire, Paris, circa 1800. The dial is signed “Le Brin à Paris.”
White and "Gris Saint Anne" marble, gilt bronze and blue enamel. Partly skeletonized movement flanked by two pilasters surmounted by gilt-bronze figures of Mars and Athena, respectively. The pilasters applied with gilt rosettes and terminating in fleurons. On a rectangular plinth with bun feet. The front and sides of the plinth with recessed reserves applied with pierced gilt-bronze friezes of foliate scrolls. The centrally mounted movement with a blue enamel plaque below, signed "Le Brin à Paris" in gold. Above, a broad enamel chapter ring within a gilt-bronze bezel, indicating the date in red, Roman hours and Arabic minutes in black. The center of the dial open, revealing the movement. Above the chapter ring, a semicircular enamel moon-phase display. Gilt, pierced and engraved hour and minute hands; blued hands for the date and seconds. Movement with Graham escapement and remontoire for constant-force drive, quarter-hour strike on two bells. With a glass dome rounded at the top (chip to the lower rear edge). 1 key.
48 × 16 × 57 cm.
Attributes of the figures missing or partly broken. Enamel of the moon-phase display with hairline cracks and restoration. One bronze decorative element at the base of the movement replaced. Movement requires servicing.

Two large mainspring barrels acting simultaneously on the going train, together with a complex remontoire, provide this clock with a long-running duration while also ensuring precise timekeeping through the remontoire’s direct action on the escape wheel and the resulting constant-force drive. The open, skeletonized case reveals the mechanism and, like the technically sophisticated movement, is characteristic of the precision clocks that came into fashion during the Louis XVI and Empire periods. Such clocks reflect the heightened technical and scientific interest among both clockmakers and the public that arose in the wake of the Enlightenment. Equally characteristic of the period are the use of enamel and the finely worked gilt-bronze elements. The clockmaker Le Brin of Paris, whose signature appears on the clock, is not listed in the standard reference works. Tardy mentions a "horloger-mécanicien" named Brin who was active in the Rue Tixeranderié in 1806.