Japy Freres four-glass service

[LittleWatchShop]

Here is a clock that belonged to my great Aunt who likely bought it in France in the latte 19th century when she lived over there.

It has been displayed in my home for a long time and now I am servicing it.  The clock was serviced four previous times by a person who also did clock work for my Dad's business.  He was a machinist and quite skillful, but I am somewhat disappointed by the work I see here.  Moreover, he marked it serviced four times over an eleven year period.  That seems excessive to me.  So, it is a bit of a mystery.

Anyway, I am showing pictures of the tear down here.  I have cleaned it, and it is reassembled and running--in test phase.  I will post other pictures later.

Because of the warnings I received here, I did not use ammoniated cleaner.  Instead, I used Dawn soap in water in an ultrasonic, and then rinsed in alcohol (not the drinkable kind!).  Not so pretty of a result, so I did use Brasso on the back plate...the one that will be visible.  Then I did another clean in the ultrasonic with an alcohol bath.

The regulator on the ones I have seen has a spring detent on the regulator sprocket.  It was not present on this clock.  A fella gave me a box of French clock movements like this, so I pinched the detent from one of those.  It looks factory now...and works properly.

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by LittleWatchShop

[watchweasol]

Hi LWS   nice clock good to work on , beware the pivots will not stand any abuse, glass hard.

[LittleWatchShop]

Front view

[Willow]

Gorgeous clock i like the french movements lovely to see.

[Willow]

Forgot to ask what's then sour cream for ?

[LittleWatchShop]

5 hours ago, Willow said:

Forgot to ask what's then sour cream for ?

Been thinking this morning about a clever snarky response, but my mind is blank.  They make great tubs for parts during disassembly.

[LittleWatchShop]

The picture does noes not accurately convey color.  The case top and bottom is green marble.  Seems unusual color for marble but I am no gemologist, so maybe it is not so unusual.

[Willow]

15 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

The picture does noes not accurately convey color.  The case top and bottom is green marble.  Seems unusual color for marble but I am no gemologist, so maybe it is not so unusual.

Yes you can get green marble in a few countries around the world apparently it is white and depending on the minerals in it give different shades of colour.

[LittleWatchShop]

Here is a little better picture of the marble.

[rodabod]

It may be Italian marble. They have some absolutely incredible colours. Another possibility is Indian. The French would have access to both at that time. 

[LittleWatchShop]

Having a problem with this clock.  I had put aside until now.  It runs for awhile and then quits.  When it quits, it is way out of beat.  Not surprising, because of an issue that I was already aware.  The verge slips on the post.  You can adjust it and get it in beat, but over time, the thing slips.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Is this normal...threaded like this?  Any suggestions on how to tighten?  Needs to be more snug, but cannot be fixed (e.g., with loctite) because it must allow for adjustment.

[watchweasol]

Hi LWS It’s been liberally dosed in solder in an attempt to solve the problem at some time. Best approach I guess is to clean off the solder turn up a bush that’s a tight fit on the arbour then drill out the crutch and broach untill the bush is a knock in fit. You could leave it tight or solder it but a cleaner job than the last one. It has probably been threaded in an effort to gain a tight fit. Is there a makers mark on the back.  eg. AB Mougin or Japy ferrets or the like ,

[LittleWatchShop]

12 minutes ago, watchweasol said:

Japy ferrets

Yes.  Here it is.

This clock belonged to my great Aunt.  Now my father was the baby of the family and came late and I was also the baby of the family and came late, so the gap between me and my grandparents was so large that they died before I was born and at a ripe old age.  My great Aunt was born in the late 1800s and was a trained musician--trained in France.  She lived there for some years.  Now doubt this clock was acquired while living there.  The repair marks (barely visible) were made my a man who did contract work for my dad (especially complicated clocks).  He was an expert machinist and I was always in awe of his shop when I visited (which I did often).  It surprises me that  this was his solution, frankly.  Since this was a family clock, there was no money to be made on the repair, so maybe it was an express fix.  We did not have a lot of money growing up...enough, but not a lot.

[watchweasol]

Hi LWS. They are quality clocks and worth a bit of effort in fixing. The only problem is the pivots they are glass hard and don’t suffer abuse. Is the pallet jewel Ed or polished steel, Some on the brocot escapements were ruby pallets , very fine.

Ithink we all were careful growing up, we were the same although the garden and the chickens helped a lot  never hungry.

[oldhippy]

  This is what I would do.  Clean all that dreadful  soft solder off. If you have the correct tap and die use them and see how things fit. If unsuccessful re bush the crutch and tap it. If by chance you cannot clean that solder from that crutch you will have to make a new one drill a small hole for the crutch to go in and use Loctite Threadlocker Red 271

This is a very nice French Four Glass with cloisonné and mercury pendulum with a very nice dial. Worth a few hundred pounds. So it need plenty of good care when cleaning and repairing such a piece