English Ormolu Fusee timepiece

The fine quality English fusee timepiece movement in this clock, possibly by F. Baetens of Gerrard Street c. 1825, had been subjected to a degree of amateur 'repair' work, to the detriment of performance and reliability.
The beautiful quality bronze and ormolu gilt casework was also looking somewhat jaded, with some of the components making a bid for freedom. A thorough mechanical service was called for, to rectify several faults. Work included re-bushing the spring barrel, re-bushing the plates, re-pivoting the centre arbor, repairs to the escapement pallets and generally cleaning and removing most of the scratches and gouges.
The case was disassembled carefully, before gently cleaning the ormolu finish using specialist cleaning solutions to restore the surface brilliance. It would be very easy to completely destroy this precious coating by using inappropriate methods of cleaning.
Originally achieved by fire gilding, where a coating solution of powdered gold and mercury was heated until the mercury burned off, leaving a thin film of gold, the process is both very hazardous and very expensive.
Brasso would definitely not be the order of the day!

The first two pictures show the components of the movement and case during work. The final picture shows the clock returned to its former glory.

Baet 1
Baet 2
Baet 3

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