Orrery

An extremely rare example of an orrery by Raingo, for which he was renowned. An orrery is a clockwork mechanism that operates a planetarium of rotating spheres representing bodies of the solar system, their relative sizes and motion.

The gilt engine-turned dial is signed Raingo à Paris with blue steel Breguet-style hands for the time and a double-ended hand for day and planetary symbol. The striking movement has a front-mounted gridiron pendulum with knife edge suspension. The time train has indirect drive from the clock movement to the orerry, or can be operated manually by means of an ivory-handle crank key. The sun at the center is flanked by two horizontal silvered dials for the four-year cycle and the lunar date. The earth and moon are mounted above the lunar dial, the terrestrial globe being surmounted by a 2x12 hours ring. The orrery train has a separately wound spring barrel for assisting the drive and the whole revolves against an annular ring calibrated with the Gregorian calendar on the inner ring and the Revolutionary calendar on the outer ring.

The case is in the shape of a circular temple with ormolu signs of the zodiac positioned around the annular calendar on a ground of mahogany with a stylized leaf ormolu border. The upper section is supported by four pillars rising from a mahogany circular base, similarly decorated with mahogany leaf and flower trellis ormolu borders.