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Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Tardy, French Clocks, Part I, Paris, 1981
Richard Mühe & Horand M Vogel, Alte Uhren, Munich, 1976
Pierre Kjellberg, L'Encyclopedie de La Pendule Française, Paris, 1997
Antoine Gaudron (c.1640-1714) was received as master at Saint-Germain-des-Prés between 1660-1665 then in Paris in 1675, where he was Juré 1690-92 (the Parisian clockmakers' guild was governed by the Jurande, comprising four members known as Jurés or garde-visiteurs, elected for two years at a time). In 1698 he was established at Place Dauphine at La Perle in 1698 and at La Renommée in 1709. He was one of the more successful Parisian clockmakers and died wealthy, leaving more than 174,000 livres. He invented some exceptional movements with multiple functions and according to his son Pierre in 1688 he made 'a regulator... which followed equations by means of a curve which raised or lowered the clock', which would make it the first French equation clock, although the invention is unconfirmed by other evidence and was therefore probably not perfected.
Gaudron married Anne Baignoux in 1671 and was father to Pierre and Antoine II, also clockmakers, and to Marie-Anne, who married Guillaume Hubert, Merchant goldsmith to the Queen of England. See Augarde, op. cit. p.319.
The use of astronomical features on clocks of this period is extremely rare. Kjellberg (p.48) shows a clock by Cogniet with moonphase and there are other known examples with this function but not with solar indications. The distinctive signature plaque on the present clock may be compared to examples by Thuret (Tardy p.138 and Mühe/Vogel p.90) and with another on the dial of a longcase clock by Pierre Duchesne (case by André-Charles Boulle) dating from c.1685 (Augarde p.248).
Tardy, French Clocks, Part I, Paris, 1981
Richard Mühe & Horand M Vogel, Alte Uhren, Munich, 1976
Pierre Kjellberg, L'Encyclopedie de La Pendule Française, Paris, 1997
Antoine Gaudron (c.1640-1714) was received as master at Saint-Germain-des-Prés between 1660-1665 then in Paris in 1675, where he was Juré 1690-92 (the Parisian clockmakers' guild was governed by the Jurande, comprising four members known as Jurés or garde-visiteurs, elected for two years at a time). In 1698 he was established at Place Dauphine at La Perle in 1698 and at La Renommée in 1709. He was one of the more successful Parisian clockmakers and died wealthy, leaving more than 174,000 livres. He invented some exceptional movements with multiple functions and according to his son Pierre in 1688 he made 'a regulator... which followed equations by means of a curve which raised or lowered the clock', which would make it the first French equation clock, although the invention is unconfirmed by other evidence and was therefore probably not perfected.
Gaudron married Anne Baignoux in 1671 and was father to Pierre and Antoine II, also clockmakers, and to Marie-Anne, who married Guillaume Hubert, Merchant goldsmith to the Queen of England. See Augarde, op. cit. p.319.
The use of astronomical features on clocks of this period is extremely rare. Kjellberg (p.48) shows a clock by Cogniet with moonphase and there are other known examples with this function but not with solar indications. The distinctive signature plaque on the present clock may be compared to examples by Thuret (Tardy p.138 and Mühe/Vogel p.90) and with another on the dial of a longcase clock by Pierre Duchesne (case by André-Charles Boulle) dating from c.1685 (Augarde p.248).