ASTRONOMICAL TABLE CLOCK "COPERNIC",
Restoration, Switzerland ca. 1820/30. The dial and the tellurium, signed F. Ducommun à La Chaux de Fonds.
Tower-shaped alabaster housing, carved with laurel frieze, blossom and flower garland. Dial with white enamel chapter ring and the hours in Arabic numerals, the center of the dial with an oval enamel cartouche with signature: François Ducommun. The top features a gilt tellurium driven by the clock movement. The center features the Sun, around which the enameled Earth moves in the course of a year. The Earth rotates around its own axis in 24 hours, and, in turn, is orbited by an enameled Moon in 29.5 days. Small chapter ring, with a fixed, blued steel arrow indicating the date of the respective synodic month. The tellurium is surrounded by a silver-plated annual ring, indicating the month and the date by means of a fixed nonius. Below it is a fixed ring with 12 enamel cartouches displaying the signs of the zodiac. Neuchâtel 8-day movement, striking the 3/4-hour on 2 gongs. Anchor movement with Graham escapement. The movement has a small subdial for setting the movement. On a blackened wooden base, with a glass cloche.
Clock: D 17.5 cm. H 42 cm. Base and glass cloche: D 25 cm. H 57 cm.

Fine chips on the alabaster housing. Function of the movement and tellurium, not tested.

Provenance:
- Purchased from François Ducommun by Niklaus Rodolph de Wattwyl, and since then owned by the same family.
- Collection Friedrich von Tscharner (1868-1952), Berne.
- By succession to the present owner, Swiss private collection.

The watchmaker François Ducommun-dit-Boudry (1763-1839) came from an internationally renowned family of watchmakers in La Chaux-de-Fonds. His father, Abram Ducommun (1723-1797), was a master watchmaker specializing in the manufacture of planetariums and his maternal grandfather, Josué Robert (1691-1771), was the royal court watchmaker of the Prussian King Frederick William I (1688-1740).

Nine such astronomical pendulums are known to date: Three are in private collections; one in patinated bronze, in the Museum of Applied Arts in Milan; another one, but with a brass case, is in the Beyer Clock Museum in Zurich, and three are in the collection of the Musée international d'Horlogerie de la Chaux-de-Fonds, one of which is identical to the one on offer, except for a few details.