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PAUL GARNIER. (b.1801- d.1869) Series 1 travelling clock. Carriage clock No. 1157. with morocco leather covering with sideward opening top. This was the first type of carriage clock produced by Garnier. The one-piece case with front glass sliding upwards to give access to the typical Garnier, brass and silvered, dial with watered-silk engine-turning, finely engraved numerals and signature and a scalloped radial pattern within the chapter ring. The signature also appears on the top left side of the back move­ment plate, together with the inscription Paul Garnier H’er.DU ROI A PARIS, and under the hammer the punched inscription P.G. Breveté. Garnier’s unique place in the history of early carriage clock rests upon the cleverness of his beautifully straightforward initial design, used in conjunction with his frictional-rest escapement, introduced at a time when travelling clocks were rather elaborate. Garnier’s early pendules de voyage are as plain as Breguet’s are elaborate. This clock is a typical example of one of Garnier’s first production pieces made from circa 1830. The clocks strike hours and half hours, but do not repeat. While it may look very straight­forward and unassuming, it is in fact beautifully made and also thoughtfully planned. The functional one-piece cases is, which includes the extraordinary feature of having a block of wood set in its hollow base casting, is accurately finished, with well ­fitting glasses even slotted into the base castings in order to help exclude dust. The clock is wound from the front and has sturdily-made steel hands designed to be set to time with the fingers. Garnier movements are par­ticularly good. Each barrel is provided with a stopwork to allow only a few turns of mainspring to be used, and also to permit some variation in initial set- up. The rectangular plates are separated by four com­pletely unornamented pillars. The trams are unusually light and nicely proportioned, the pinions being made of good steel and having really fine (small diameter) pivots even by French standards. There are many other small touches of refinement. For instance, Garnier chose to use rack striking work at a time when most French clockmakers were content with locking-plates. By far the most unusual and also interesting feature of the clock is to be found in its escapement. This is a development of a two-plane frictional-rest design of the type supposed to have been invented by De Baufre in the l8th century, and which has been re-invented at intervals ever since. Garnier devised this escape­ment in 1829 and patented it in 1830. Today, after as much as one hundred and sixty years, these Series 1 Garnier travelling clocks remain as practical as they are attractive. Date circa 1840. Height 14,5 cm. with the handle up. Width 9,2 cm. price on request