Breguet

• gilt brass rectangular with double barrel on going and striking train, a special Robin detent-lever escapement, plain three arm balance, flat balance spring with regulator, striking mechanism with top button • white enamel dial with Breguet numerals, Breguet blued steel hands, alarm setting hand • rectangular elm veneered case with sliding back door, gilt brass decorated bezel, glazed oval aperture to the top with visible balance • dial and movement signed

This carriage clock is among the few pieces that were sent to Breguet's agent in Russia where the firm was called La Maison de Russie and set up in 1808 by Lazare Moreau. The agent was given permission to call himself 'Mr. Moreau-Breguet', and managed to get rapidly introduced to all influential personalities close to the Court and even met Tsar Alexander I on some occasions. It is interesting to notice that the case style of this clock is very typical of furniture from that period showing an elegant case made out of elm. Not only does this piece have the original Russian influence from that period, but it also demonstrates the genius of Abraham Louis Breguet with a special escapement described and illustrated in the Art of Breguet by George Daniels, p. 320. The success by which Maison de Russie supplied all important families in Russia was soon to be recognized by the Tsar himself, when he appointed both the agent and the Breguet firm watchmakers to 'His Majesty and Imperial Navy'.