Japy Fre'res & Cie G d' Honneur HELP ME PLEASE!!!

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:50 pm     Post subject: Japy Fre'res & Cie G d' Honneur HELP ME PLEASE!!!

Hello my name is Brian i'm new to all this so please bare with me. The reason I am making this post is because I have a clock i've had the clock for at least thirty years it works now but when I got the clock, it was overwound but my friend who has tons of clocks fixed it and at the time he offered me $500 knowing how into clocks he was, I knew that I might have something if he was interested, so I held onto it and it's just been sitting on my bar in my basement for ever. So after rambling on for a while, the main reason da da don l'd like an estimate on what this clock might be worth (any knowledge is appreciated and I have many pics but I can't put them all up)The only info i've been able to drum up is that it's called a crystal regulator maybe i'm not an expert obviously. This picture is the what the clock looks like it is 10in tall an has 2 intact mercury vials pendulum things. Also one of the things i'm quite curious about is the inlays because all examples of this clock or ones like it that I have found don't have any. shows the mercury vials. This clock also has what looks like possibly porclein or maybe an ivory but i doubt that it is. it's original that I know of however the hands are losing a very small amount of paint and there is some hairline cracks from what looks to be an impact but we will never know because it was like this when I recieved it. Also I forgot to mention that the face of the clock looks to be painted (almost positive). Now down to the nitty gritty. On the back of the clock mechanism thing it says MADE IN FRANCE in large letters and right above that is the hallmark it kind of looks like a star thing with maybe a sword and 2 circles above the star it';s really hard to make out. And around the star thing inside of the circle in small letters that take a really long time to make out it says Japy Fre'res & Cie on the top half and on the bottom half starting half way up the circle reading from left to right it says g d' Honneur also some things that you might not have been able to see the striker that hits the gong thing that makes noise isn't broken but the weld or solder or whatever is holding it in place is cracked where it meets the holder thing that picks it up to strike when it moves to hit he gong. Also it is missing one screw on the left side Oh yes i forgot the number 52 is stamped or carved all over this thing on the doors front and back and inside etc.. and the serial number im assuming under the hallmark is 276 2 4 1 and just in case you were wondering I took these pictures with a Nikon D3000 DSLR. Thank you for looking at my post it took forever and thank you even more if you have a knowledgable estimate.

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 1:00 am     Post subject:

It's a very beautiful clock, Japy was a very high-end manufacturer of clock movements. Just doing a google of Japy Crystal Regulators came up with a auction price of $900 for a plain looking one.

The inlays are most likely cloisonne, fired enamel.

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:39 am     Post subject:

Thanks so much you just made my day iv'e been waiting for a reply all day have you ever seen one with inlays or read about one and do you know what the #'s mean.

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:44 am     Post subject:

Also I forgot to clarify that when i said that i thought the dial was painted i only meant the flowers and designs If anyone has seen this exact clock somewhere pls put the url or a link in pls pls pls i've never seen another and history about this maker or how it was made would be appreciated also maybe year that it was made and what should i do about restoring and cleaning for the time being .

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:51 pm     Post subject:

The dial is a fairly standard design for those types of clock. You will also see them on 400 day Anniversary clocks, or China clocks.

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:57 pm     Post subject:

thanks again i was wondering because you said that the movement was famous does that mean that someone put this clock together from pieces or was it produced and made by japy freres