No. 345 CUM
11-inch Comtoise clock with anchor escapement and pressed pendulum, dating to around 1880/1890. The brass-pressed decorative plate depicts grazing cows in front of a church and farmhouse, with snow-covered mountain peaks and a rider on a white horse, which moves in rhythm with the pendulum. The painting is recent.
The pendulum also shows two horses and a mountain farmhouse in winter with a snow-covered roof, fir trees, and cows drinking from a snow-covered water trough.
The seasons—summer and winter—are subtly represented here, while the dial itself delivers a stark reminder of life’s transience with the phrase: A quelle heure mourez-vous? (At what hour will you die?), prompting reflection each time one looks at the clock.
L.P. Boussaud had this admonition written on his dial in 1853. While the enamel inscription is authentic, the two small medallions—depicting (left) a young girl representing life in full bloom, and (right) a skeleton symbolizing death—were painted later, likely to reinforce the allegory of life and death.
Half-hour and full-hour strike on a bell with repetition.
Enamel dial signed: PL.P. Boussaud 1853
Dial diameter: 230
Cage dimensions: 318 x 275 x 148 HxWxD
Movement dimensions: 470 x 276 x 170 HxWxD
Pendulum length: 1303 (all measurements in mm)
