French silver half hour and hour striking coach clock Circa 1650

Silver verge coach clock with alarm by Jacques Goullons
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A very fine French silver one handed half hour and hour striking coach clock with alarm, circa 1650. Full plate movement, chain and fusee, two lavishly pierced and florally engraved barrels for the alarm and hourly strike, two hammers, a verge escapement, count wheel, blued ratchet on top and four arm steel balance. White enamel chapter ring with blue Roman hours and half hour markers, a central silver alarm disc with Arabic numerals and engraved summer flowers, a blued steel hand. An elaborate pierced and engraved case, the band is decorated with a flower band of lilies, daffodils and sunflowers, there are also two putti and a cartouche with the portrait of a general adorned with a laurel wreath, flanked by two other putti and cornucopias, two warriors tied to the pendant and all kinds of war equipment, a rear bell. Movement signed.
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Diameter: 115 mm
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Weight: 1370 g
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Signed: Goullons à Paris
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This watch was modernized shortly after Christian Huygens invented the balance spring in 1675. In the course of this, towards the end of the 17th century, a balance cock and a regulating device for the balance spring were made.
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Jacques Goullons was an important Paris watchmaker, active between 1625 and about 1660. As a watchmaker, he worked at the court of Gaston, Duke of Orléans (1608-1660), brother of King Louis XIII (1601-1643) and later probably also for Philip, Duke of Orléans (1640-1701), brother of King Louis XIV (1638-1715). He specialized in making movements for pocket watches with enamelled cases, among his works is a clock for Louis XIV, now in the Robert Lehman Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Goullons’ focus of activity is not surprising, as Gaston, Duke of Orléans was known, among other things, as the patron of a successful group of enamellers who worked in Blois, the Duke’s residence. The International Museum of Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds owns a Goullons watch. In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London there is a magnificent clock with portraits of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu and the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers’ owns a clock by Goullons decorated with enamel flowers and leaves. Jacques Goullons died in August 1671.