AN EARLY FRENCH GILT-METAL TABLE CLOCK WITH ALARM, BLOIS, EARLY 16TH CENTURY

single tier hexagonal iron movement with verge escapement and contrate wheel which have brass rims, the foliot fitted with shaped weights, elongated fusee with gut, long alarm barrel, gothic pillars of demi hexagon-form, the bell suspended from a tri-form support, hexagonal gilt-metal case of cupola form, upper pierced frieze and molded borders, the inset silver chapter ring with I-XII twice, brass arrow form hands for time and alarm, the base cover stamped Blois below a fleur-de-lis. Blois was one of the earliest centers of watch and clockmaking in France and activity can be traced to the early 16th century; when six makers are known to have worked there. Blois was a favorite location of the French court and therefore many clockmakers received royal patronage. In France, spring driven clocks first appeared about 1480 during the reign of Louis XI but it was during the French Renaissance, throughout the sixteenth century, that the clock took on an architectural style usually in the form of a small hexagonal tower with domed and ribbed cresting, modeled after an apse of a Gothic church. To compare similar examples see Tardy, French Clocks the World Over, Part One.