Miniature Skeleton Alarm Clock

A miniature French skeleton alarm clock with silk suspension dating from the mid 19th century, with original glass dome on an ebonised and brass inlayed base with enamel dial, and silvered alarm dial, Striking on a very attractive bell, .

This clock was made by Victor Athanase Pierret whose distinctive VAP mark in an oval is stamped on the base of this clock. He exhibited a small skeleton alarm at the 1851 Great exhibition at Crystal Palace of which this may well be a version.

Victor-Athanase Pierret (1806 - 1893)
Victor-Athanse Pierret was born 1806 in Bucy-les-Pierrepont. He began his five year apprenticeship with Rolin at the age of 13. Later he moved to Paris and settled in the Rue des Bons-Enfants no. 21 when he was 24. Pierret created pendulum clocks with and without calender indicator, cases for ship’s chronometers, chronometer escapements with temperature compensation and night light clocks with pendulum. At the London Exhibition of 1851 he presented an alarm clock and a pendulum clock with a globe. In 1853 Pierret applied for a patent for a new date indication device, in 1855 he patented an 8-day power reserve movement.
Pierret created his own watchmaking tools to increase his productivity. In 1865 he gave up half his house and retired to Neuilly, where he continued his researches. In 1885 he published a treatise entitled "Horlogerie, outillage et mécanique". Victor-Athanase Pierret died in 1893 and in his will he stipulated an annual prize of 600 francs to be paid to "a watchmaker with an original idea“.

Source: Tardy, "Dictionnaire des Horlogers Francais", Paris 1972, p. 521

This clock comes with our two year guarantee.

25cm H x 16cm W x 10cm D with Dome