Horology - LEPAUTE (Jean-André). Traité d'horlogerie, contai - Lot 316

Horology - LEPAUTE (Jean-André). Traité d'horlogerie, containing all that is necessary to properly understand and regulate clocks and watches, a description of the most useful timepieces, repetitions, equations, one-wheel clocks, &c. that of the new escapement, a treatise on engrénages, with several tables, & XVII. Intaglio plates. Augmented by a description of a new policameratic clock. Paris, Samson, 1767. In-4, marbled calf, ornate ribbed spine (period binding). [4]-xxviii-308 pp., xxxv-(1) pp. ""tables du tems moyen au midi vrai, c'est-à-dire de l'heure que doit marquer chaque jour à midi, une pendule exactement réglée sur le tems moyen"", 12 pp. ""Description d'une nouvelle pendule policamératique; pour servir de supplément au traité d'horlogerie."4 pp. "Description d'une pendule à secondes, qui marque le tems moyen & le tems vrai, sans être exposée aux inconvéniens qu'on a remarqué jusqu'à présent dans les pendules d'équation", 17 folding plates. Plate 15 is missing, here replaced by a non-equivalent plate from another clock book. Light spotting in the lower margin of the plates (on paper slightly more "manié" than the rest of the copy). A clockmaker, Lepaute invented new types of clocks and made numerous improvements to the mechanical clock. The precision of his work made him a favorite with observatories in several European countries, which commissioned him to make astronomical clocks. Old handwritten bookplate (or ex-dono?) ""to Mr. Pierre Dubois priest and amateur clockmaker, deported as a priest during the Revolution"". A fine copy, unfortunately incomplete with one plate. Expert : Madame Elvire POULAIN-MARQUIS