AN AIRPLANE AUTOMATON TIMEPIECE, FRENCH, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

2-inch enamel dial, 8-day movement with lever escapement in molded rectangular plinth case surmounted by a gantry inset with a thermometer and a barometer, a metal airplane pendant from a horizontal bar attached to an arbor at the top of the structure and `flying' around the gantry: as the plane moves the propeller revolves, the driving mechanism for the plane concealed in the plinth, the whole with eagle finial. For a similar industrial clock in the form of an airplane, see Sotheby's New York, The Joseph M. Meraux Collection of Rare and Unusual Clocks, June 28th, 1993, lot 56.