French gold quarter repeating verge Jacquemart Circa 1820

Gold quarter repeating pocket watch
–
A French quarter repeating gentleman’s pocket watch with a four-coloured figure automaton Jacquemart, circa 1820.
Plain polished 18-carat gold case. Front with automaton figures in four colours, very detailed worked, white enamel dial in the centre with Arabic hours and outer minute divisions, and steel Breguet hands. Full plate verge movement, repeating the hours and quarter hours, two hammers, two gongs, three-arm brass balance.
–
Diameter: 54 mm
–
Weight: 94 g
–
Signed: No name
–
A Jacquemart (sometimes Jacquemart and also called a quarter-jack) is an automaton, an animated, mechanized figure of a person, usually made from wood or metal, which strikes the hours on a bell with a hammer. Jacquemarts are typically part of clocks or clock towers and are often near or at the top of the construction. The figurine is also known as Jack of the Clock or Jack o’Clock.
The word is originally French but is sometimes used in English as well. The origin of the word is disputed, but one theory relates it to a tool called a ‘jacke’, used by the craftsmen building church towers, the steeplejacks.