I have seen many forgeries, but never a clock whose maker has gone to so much trouble to rework the parts of a 19th century Comtoise clock to make it look like an early 18th century Comtoise.
What is believed to be a 9 inch Comtoise movement cage has been reduced in size so that the cage now measures 207mm high, 150mm wide and 142mm deep.
The plates of the movement were cut to the appropriate height at the top and bottom so that they are now rectangular.
In the 9-inch cage, the two winding wheels were placed next to each other, as the gears ran next to each other at the same height. The two elevator wheels were identical.
Due to the smaller movement cage, the
However, the two sets of gears for the going train and striking train could no longer be placed next to each other. The winding axle of the striking train was remade so that the wheel could be positioned forwards so that it could rotate next to or in front of the winding wheel of the going train.
You can see the result of this when you look at the meshing of the pinion of the star wheel with the toothing of the winding wheel, namely that only a small part of the pinion no longer meshes with half of the toothing of the winding wheel!
The hammer axle was not shortened and therefore protrudes very high above the upper cage plate.
The large hour wheel was sawn out of iron with pointed teeth.
The pinion on the extended axle of the large bottom wheel was also milled out with pointed teeth.
If you dismantle the hour wheel, i.e. press out the pressure spring, you will see the individual parts.
However, it is not possible to turn the hand, as the hand axle, hour baton and star for the striking mechanism are firmly connected to each other. The look is right, the function is not!
If you look at the pewter dial, you will see that it is attached to the dial support plate on this clock with 4 small screws at XII, III, VI and IX. If you look closely at the pewter dial, you can see 3 places where old holes have been artfully filled. Take a look at the corresponding pictures. There is a picture in which the tips of three small screwdrivers point to the old holes.
The used screws all have metric threads, of course, so you can recognize the fake by that alone.
Every single part of this clock could be examined and the forgery could be proven on every part. The rake, the windscreen with spiral spring, the hammer, the adjustable anchor axle, the striking mechanism lever, etc., all point to the 19th century.
The pewter dial alone could be an 18th century example.
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