A finely engraved, carriage clock with hour and half-hour passing strike on a gong and with three subsidiary dials.

The case is of classic gorge style with knopped carrying handle, oval top glass and ogee foot.  The engraving of flowers and foliage on a delicate matted ground is of very fine quality.

The round dial set within an engraved mask and written with double minutes circle, beautifully proportioned Roman numerals and Arabic five minutes has blued steel moon hands. The subsidiary dials for day of the week, alarm and date are set below the main dial.

The movement with ruby endstone and cut compensated balance strikes the hours and half hours on a gong. The alarm also sounds on one of the bells. The backplate is stamped D and C between an image of a carriage clock on the left hand side and is also numbered 12119 at the bottom left.

Date: circa 1870-1880

Height:  5 ½ in  (14 cm) excluding handle
Height:   6 ¾ in  (17 cm) with handle up

Width: 3 ¾ in (9.5 cm)

Depth: 3 ¼ in (8 cm)

* The Drocourts are recorded in Charles Allix’s book Carriage Clocks: Their History and Development. Other more up to date research on the family has been carried out by Leigh Extence. Pierre Drocourt was born in 1819 and started working as a clockmaker in Paris in 1853. He was succeeded by his son Alfred, who was born in 1847, in 1872. The Drocourts won numerous international exhibition medals for their high quality  clocks including Silver in Paris in 1878 and a Gold medal in 1889.

HW6512