Régulateur de parquet attribué à Schwerdfeger

Mahogany floor regulator on a rectangular base. A window shows the balance wheel. The frame is surmounted by a pediment decorated at its base with a crenellated frieze in the antique style.
The movement is signed J. Caillaud. Enamelled dial marking the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes in Arabic numerals.
Attributed to Schwerdfeger
Restorations of use
H. 195 x W. 44 x D. 22 cm

The movement of our work is signed J. Caillaud, a watchmaker who worked with the cabinetmaker Nicolas Petit. Our regulator has the same bichromatic grill balance as another regulator made by Caillaud and stamped N. Petit (p.306, Encyclopédie de la pendule française, by Pierre Kjellberg).
The exclusive use of mahogany and the pure form found on this regulator allow us to attribute it to the cabinetmaker Schwerdfeger. There are a few rare models similar to ours (La Pendulerie collection).  
Schwerdfeger was a cabinetmaker, awarded by the master's degree in 1786. Although the brevity of his career under the Ancien Régime did not allow him to produce many stamped pieces of furniture, the five pieces we know today show that Schwerdfeger already had a well-established reputation for the quality of his work. In 1787, the City of Paris commissioned him to make a jewel box to be presented to Queen Marie-Antoinette, to whom Schwerdfeger also supplied a console for her bedroom in the Petit Trianon. Today, three of his pieces of furniture are kept in the Château de Versailles.
Schwerdfeger is mainly known for its production of regulators, and worked with the greatest names in watchmaking, such as Robert Robin and Jean-Simon Bourdier.