Lot Essay
Constantin Louis Detouche is listed as working in Rue St. Martin from 1825 to 1890 and was one of a small band of pioneering Paris clockmakers that was experimenting with the first electric clocks.
The first electric clock patent had been taken out by the Scotsman Alexander Bain in 1841, it was a simple timepiece but it stirred clockmakers around the world into experimenting with electricity. In Paris Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, the son-in-law of Jacques Francois Houdin, was one of the first Frenchmen to take out a patent for an electric clock in 1855 op. cit.. Already a celebrated magician, Robert-Houdin had probably been experimenting with electricity for his conjuring tricks. His father-in-law had collaborated with Detouche to make other types of clocks so it was only natural for Robert-houdin to go to Detouche to construct a working model of his electric invention.
Unlike most of the electric clocks being constructed in these formative years the present clock is a masterful combination of ingenuity and style, its handsome dial, beautifully made pendulum and well proportioned case place it well ahead of any other electric clocks being made anywhere in the world.
Paul Garnier, 1801-1869, was one of France's most innovative and prolific clockmakers. Like Jacques-François Houdin, Garnier studied under Abraham Louis Breguet and then set up on his own in Rue de Taitbout in 1825. Apart from his famous chaff-cutter escapement (patented in 1830), Garnier took out the earliest French patent for an electric clock and received a gold medal for it in the Gread London Ehibition of 1851. Quite how the present clock came into Paul Garnier's collection is impossible to say but it is not inconceiveable that on seeing Detouche's remarkable clock in an exhibition decided to include it in the company's collection. This clock (and the following lot) were both part of the property when the company was acquired in 1938 by the celebrated French watchmaker Léon Hatot and until recently it was still being used as the company timekeeper
The first electric clock patent had been taken out by the Scotsman Alexander Bain in 1841, it was a simple timepiece but it stirred clockmakers around the world into experimenting with electricity. In Paris Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, the son-in-law of Jacques Francois Houdin, was one of the first Frenchmen to take out a patent for an electric clock in 1855 op. cit.. Already a celebrated magician, Robert-Houdin had probably been experimenting with electricity for his conjuring tricks. His father-in-law had collaborated with Detouche to make other types of clocks so it was only natural for Robert-houdin to go to Detouche to construct a working model of his electric invention.
Unlike most of the electric clocks being constructed in these formative years the present clock is a masterful combination of ingenuity and style, its handsome dial, beautifully made pendulum and well proportioned case place it well ahead of any other electric clocks being made anywhere in the world.
Paul Garnier, 1801-1869, was one of France's most innovative and prolific clockmakers. Like Jacques-François Houdin, Garnier studied under Abraham Louis Breguet and then set up on his own in Rue de Taitbout in 1825. Apart from his famous chaff-cutter escapement (patented in 1830), Garnier took out the earliest French patent for an electric clock and received a gold medal for it in the Gread London Ehibition of 1851. Quite how the present clock came into Paul Garnier's collection is impossible to say but it is not inconceiveable that on seeing Detouche's remarkable clock in an exhibition decided to include it in the company's collection. This clock (and the following lot) were both part of the property when the company was acquired in 1938 by the celebrated French watchmaker Léon Hatot and until recently it was still being used as the company timekeeper