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A fine Empire gilt bronze mounted amboyna orrery clock made by Raingo Freres, signed on the white enamel dial by Raingo Freres and Leroy & Fils Paris. The dial with Roman numerals and a pair of blued steel hands for the hours, minutes and days of the week. The clock movement of eight day duration with a fine grid iron pendulum. The fine gilt bronze mounted amboyna veneered case with clock suspended between pillars surmounted by an entablature with an outer ring with gilt bronze signs of the zodiac and inner ring indicating the days and names of the month and the four year cycle, the entablature supporting the orrery of four year duration, consisting of rotating spheres representing the sun, earth and moon, with an ivory handle below for manual operation, the pillars supported on a circular base
Paris, date circa 1830
Height 67,5 cm.
Literature: Tardy, "Les Plus Belles Pendules Francaise", 1994, p. 339, showing two earlier Raingo orrery clocks with caryatid supports, one in the Musee d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels; and pp. 340-341, illustrating similar orrery clocks by Antide Janvier and Raingo, one signed by both in the Musee d'Horlogerie, La Chaux-de-Fonds. Cedric Jagger, "Royal Clocks", 1983, pp. 168-170, pls. 229-231, illustrating an almost identical clock in the British Royal Collection, a detail and as illustrated in the Pictorial Inventory. Pierre Kjellberg, "Encyclopediedie de la Pendule Francaise du Moyen Age au XXe Siecle", 1997, p. 376, pl. A, illustrating a very similar Raingo clock.
Although Z. Raingo executed a number of fine domestic clocks, he and his firm are far more famous for the production of orrery clocks. With the increased interest in science and astronomy, orrery clocks proved extremely popular during the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The orrery clock looks quite different from other astronomical timepieces, with the clock mounted by a mechanism of rotating spheres designed to indicate the relative sizes, positions and movements of the earth, moon and sun. Each of Raingo's orrery clocks followed a similar design and all, as here, were veneered in the finest mottled amboyna wood (which was particularly popular during the 18th and 19th centuries) and ornamented with fine gilt bronze mounts.
In 1815 Raingo took out a patent for his orrery designs which he published in 1823, entitled Description of a clock with moving spheres. A number of other eminent French makers including Raingo's former tutor, Antide Janvier (1751-1835) produced such pieces, but none were as fine as Raingo's. Though he made so few (of which only about ten are signed with his name), Raingo's orrery clocks proved so superior that his name has become synonymous with this type of clock. Antide Janvier clearly recognized his pupil's talent and later supplied Raingo with movements for some of his more complex astronomical clocks and thus some of the earlier models also bear Janvier's name. Raingo began making orrery clocks during the first decade of the 1800's. By 1810 he had a successful workshop in Gand, Belgium, where he had fled from France for political reasons. By 1823 his firm, known as Raingo Freres, was based in Paris and recorded as clockmakers to the duc de Chartres. At one stage the business was at rue de Clery also at rue Vieille du Temple in 1829 and rue de Saintonge from 1840-50. The firm was still Paris based when it exhibited at the International Exhibition, London, 1863.
Intended for domestic use, Raingo's orrery clocks could only be afforded by the seriously wealthy student of astronomy and science, one of whom was King George IV of England. In 1824 he purchased an almost identical clock from Raingo for 300 guineas. For many years it was displayed in Windsor Castle library. Other of the few known examples are now in public collections, notably in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, Paris; the Musee de l'Horlogerie, BEsancon the Palais du Cinquentenaire, Brussels; the Royal Collection, Madrid; Glasgow Art Gallery and the Soane Collection, London.
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