Lot 7
7
Constantin Louis Detouche, Paris A rare Napoleon III mahogany early electric regulator. Circa 1855
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more Constantin Louis Detouche was a very fine watch and clockmaker who had close ties with both Jacques Francois Houdin and Houdin's son-in-law the great Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Detouche is first listed as working in Rue de Venise, Paris, in 1820 then in 1825 he moved to Rue Saint-Martin where it appears he stayed until 1890. Detouche it seems was greatly occupied with combining horology with the obvious benefits that electricity had to offer - as were many inventive horological minds throughout Europe at that time. Earlier in 1841 Alexander Bain (1811-1877), a Scotsman from Edinburgh had taken out his patent for an electric clock - a relatively crude and rudimentary device employing an electro-magnetically driven pendulum. Electric clocks and their development were still in their infancy, they were simple devices and no one had yet to devise a clever way to enhancing the power of electricity to the mechanics of clocks. Bain's nemesis was Sir Charles Wheatstone, scientist, inventor and accredited as 'the Father of telegraphy (another subject that interested Detouche). Wheatstone was Bain's intial sponsor when Bain first came to London in 1837. Their ensuing arguments as to whether Wheatstone had stolen Bain's plans went on for many years but in 1855 Wheatstone travelled to Paris to the Universal Exhibition and there he saw an amazing electric regulator; he noted that he did not want to leave the exhibition without taking it with him. The extraordinary clock he saw was attributed in Wheatstone's letter to Robert-Houdin, but it could only have been built as a result of close collaboration between Detouche and Robert-Houdin. Their patent of 1856 was made jointly under both of their names. This regulator, Lot 7 is therefore the product of the genius of Robert-Houdin's combined with the wonderful clockmaking skills of Constantin Louis Detouche.
Constantin Louis Detouche, Paris A rare Napoleon III mahogany early electric regulator. Circa 1855

Details
Constantin Louis Detouche, Paris

A rare Napoleon III mahogany early electric regulator. Circa 1855
The case with detachable stepped and moulded pediment, glazed door with hollow corner mouldings, concave-moulded plinth with hinged door panel and spring-loaded side catch, 10½ in. diameter gilt bezel to the dial with painted glass annular Roman chapter ring with large blued moon hands, subsidiary painted glass seconds ring at VI with counter balanced blued steel hand, the gilt centre signed C. Detouche Fseur. de L'Empereur. Paris, visible 'scape wheel in the centre of the seconds ring with three counterpoised steel ratchet arms linked to two pivoted steel arms beneath the bone-capped coils, the whole assembly anchored to the backboard by means of a large rectangular gilt-brass plate stamped C. Detouche brevete S.G.D.G. 16611; the massive steel and gilt-brass gridiron pendulum suspended from a bone-capped steel spring, flanked by two extended arms giving contact and receiving impulse from the circuit, the pendulum with capstan wheel regulation at the top and also at the bob with visible active cantilever compensation system, steel pointer to the white enamel beat scale on the base board
7 ft. 4 in. (224 cm.) high
Provenance
Collection Paul Garnier, Paris
Monsieur Léon Hatot, Maison Hatot, Paris
Christie's, London, 12 June, 1996, lot 297
Literature
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Catalogue du Musée, section JB, Horlogerie, Paris, 1949, p. 292
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Unlike most of the early electric clocks being constructed in the formative years of the 1850s this clock is a masterful combination of ingenuity and style. Its handsome dial, and top quality gridiron pendulum are housed in a case of wonderfully slender proportions. It is a clock that features designs far in advance of anything being made at the time.

MAISON PAUL GARNIER
Paul Garnier (1801-1869) was one of France's most innovative and prolific clockmakers. Like Jacques-François Houdin, Garnier studied under Abraham Louis Breguet. He then set up on his own in Rue 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 London Great Exhibition of 1851. Being an intuitive inventor and collector it seems quite likely that on seeing Detouche's clock in an exhibition he wanted to buy it. In 1916 Garnier's Collection Privée was acquired by the Louvre but Detouche's clock remained in the workshops which were acquired by the celebrated French watchmaker Léon Hatot. Hatot continued to use it as his master clock sending signals to all the electric wall clocks around the workshops. It was still being used as the workshop regulator up until it was sold in 1997.

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