Lot 307

L'Epine Horologer de Roy à Paris, Movement No. 75, 112 mm, 1050 g, circa 1800
A quarter repeating coach clock with quarter hour/hour strike, alarm and date
Case: brass, firegilt, pierced edge, rear bell. Dial: enamel, central chapter ring with Arabic numerals for alarm, aperture for date at ''6''. Movm.: full plate movement, 1 barrel/chain/fussee for going train, 3 florally engraved barrels for striking and alarm train, 4 hammers, verge escapement, five-arm brass balance.
Jean-Antonine Lépine (1720-1814) went to Paris in 1744 to work in the shop of André-Charles Caron. He later married Caron's daughter and obtained his master craftsman's certificate in 1756. Lépine became known in 1763 when he invented a new striking mechanism for pocket watches, which was made public in the "Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences" in 1766. Lépine was appointed clockmaker to the king in 1765; he took over his father-in-law's workshop a year later. His idea of replacing the backplate with bridges and cocks made the service of the watches much easier and achieved his breakthrough in 1770. He formed a partnership with Claude-Pierre Raguet in 1792 and called himself "Horloger du Roi" from then on.

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