Nr. 552 CUM
10-inch Comtoise monthly clock with a single-piece embossed decorative plate, anchor escapement – small anchor spanning 6 1/2 teeth, half-hour and full-hour strike on a bell with repetition of the hour strike. Enamel dial with floral decoration around the location indication, signed: Villenaissage à St. Jean d’Angely, inscribed: DEPOSE sans Garantie du Gouvernem. Brevete, circa 1848.
Dial diameter: 220
Cage dimensions: 276 x 245 x 146 HxWxD
Movement dimensions: 421 x 248 x 160 HxWxD
Pendulum length: approx. 1280 (all dimensions in mm)
This decorative plate, featuring the motif Carpenter Joseph with Mary and Son Jesus, represents the only known attempt to adapt the decorative plate at its lower edge to the practice of cutting by allowing it to be trimmed in the groove area without cutting through embossed decorative parts. This was a logical and practical solution to the problem, yet it did not gain acceptance. Every decorative plate, whether on a 9-inch, 10-inch, or 11-inch clock, continued to be individually trimmed to fit the movement cage until the end of production in the early 20th century.
The embossed decorative plates were all the same size because only one embossing tool existed. While they met the requirements of industrial mass production, they were handcrafted. However, since the movement cages and other clock parts were not dimensionally identical, individual trimming was always necessary. Had the clock components been industrially manufactured, they would have been interchangeable. Throughout the production of Comtoise clocks, the components were manufactured in a proto-industrial manner; identical-looking parts were not interchangeable despite their appearance.
