Lot 537

B-L Petit, Rue St. Honoré No. 340 à Paris, Movement No. 4578, Case No. 325, 64 mm, 225 g, circa 1838
A large, heavy quarter repeating pocket watch with "Grande" and "Petite Sonnerie" self strike
Case: silver, engine-turned, numbered and signed gold dome, case maker's punch mark "LS", slide for silence, seven-piece gold hinge, slide for selection of "Quarts simples" or "Sonnerie des Heures et Quarts". Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, signed, blued Breguet hands. Movm.: full plate movement, keywind, frosted, gilt, 2 hammers / 2 gongs, chain/fusee, barrel for striking train, baluster movement pillars, cylinder escapement with sapphire cylinder, gilt three-arm ring balance, striking mechanism controlled by governor and a second roller shaped wheel.
B-L Petit had his own business at Rue St. Honoré no. 340 from around 1810 until about 1840, and when we look at this watch we must assume that he was one of the best French makers of precision watches of his time. He was the son-in-law of and successor to Parisian watchmaker Claude Mathieu le Ainé and most likely his pupil too; Claude Mathieu le Ainé created his masterpiece in 1754 and opened his own workshop in the Rue des Capucines at Place Vendome in 1757. He produced pocket watches and pendulum clocks and in 1759 he moved to Rue St. Honoré 7 - most likely to be closer to a wealthy clientele. In 1766 he had a dispute with some creditors. He most likely died in 1810, because a widow Mathieu is registered at the Rue St. Honoré address that year.

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