French silver quarter repeating verge coach clock Circa 1800

Silver Verge Repeating Coach Clock by Julien Le Roy
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A French silver open faced quarter repeating verge coach clock, circa 1800. Full plate movement, verge escapement, chain and fusee, two hammers, three-armed brass balance. Plain case with the engraved coat of arms of two noble families on the case and a rear bell. White enamel dial with Roman hours, outer Arabic five-minute numerals and decorative hands.
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Diameter: 106 mm
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Weight: 1100 g
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Signed: Julien Le Roy à Paris
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Julien Le Roy is one of the clockmakers who contributed most to the progress and the reputation of French watchmaking and clockmaking. Born in Tours on August 6, 1686, and died in 1759 in Paris. He came to Paris in 1699. In 1713, he achieved his master’s degree, and in the following years, he became a jury member of the Paris Guild of Watchmakers. Later, Le Roy became director of the Société des Arts de Genève and, in 1739, Court Watchmaker (French Horloger Ordinaire du Roi) under Louis XV; he had his private quarters in the Louvre. He improved almost all branches of clockmaking, and many important inventions in the realm of time measurement are owed to him. In 1717, Julien Le Roy presented an equation clock to the Royal Academy of Sciences that showed the true time, the place of the sun, and its decline. His most important discoveries concerned watch mechanisms. The adjustable ‘potency’ for the verge escape wheel considerably improved the escapement’s functioning, and the steel end-piece (coqueret), which allowed oil to be retained in the balance pivots to diminish frictional force, was quickly adopted by other watchmakers. He was the inventor of dumb repeating watches, too; in 1740, he created a new arrangement that enlarged the area allotted to the repeating work. This invention, called ‘à bâte levée’, was also adopted by his fellow clockmakers. In 1755, he invented a small anchor escapement used as a regulator for the repeating train. He contributed to the Encyclopédie by writing several articles on clockmaking together with his son Jean-Baptiste, the Academician. Le Roy ran his workshop in the Rue de Harlay in Paris until his death. Examples of his timepieces can be found in various important museums worldwide, such as the Louvre and the Victoria and Albert Museum.