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Lot Essay
Jean-André Lepaute (1720-1789) and his brother Jean-Baptiste 1727-1802), were the original founders of a dynasty of Parisian clockmakers who all made a significant contribution to French horology. The sons of a blacksmith, it was Jean-André who broke the parental bonds first and set up the first workshop in Paris in 1740. Like other brilliant clockmakers, he quickly impressed the academia and made important contacts that were to shape his prosperous life. To this end his marriage was the greatest coup in that he married in 1761 Nicole Reine Etable de la Brire who was considered at the time one of the country's great academics, a most unusual accolade for a woman at that time.
The two brothers wisely took their nephews Pierre Henry and Pierre Bazile into apprenticeship thereby ensuring the company's prosperity. The company made the Paris city hall clock which had equation of time and showed day-by-day the sun's return to the meridian.
The two brothers wisely took their nephews Pierre Henry and Pierre Bazile into apprenticeship thereby ensuring the company's prosperity. The company made the Paris city hall clock which had equation of time and showed day-by-day the sun's return to the meridian.