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Lot Essay
These caryatic figures, standing on Grecian-stepped altar drums and revealing time and atmospheric pressure marked on night veiled globes, are star-crowned Urania, Muse of Astronomy and Mt. Parnassus companion of the sun-deity Apollo. Their role as a poetry deity and as a goddess of creative inspiration in poetry and other arts is celebrated by Grecian laurel baguettes festooning the herm-tapered pedestal.
JANVIER
Antide Janvier was born on 1 July 1751 in Brive near St. Claude in the Jura mountains. His father, although recorded as a farm labourer, referred to himself as 'Master Clockmaker' on the baptism certificate of his second son. His father recognised his son's precocious talent and from the age of thirteen Antide was selected to study under the Abbé Tournier at Saint-Claude.
By 1770 he was in the service of Mr. Devanne as an apprentice clockmaker. Through great audacity Janvier managed to gain himself an audience with Louis XV in Paris but his impudence stood him in poor stead and he was sent packing to Verdun.
Having married and settled there as a clockmaker he came to the attention of Monsieur de Lalande, the famous professor of Astronomy at the Collège de France. Janvier had made two small Sphères mouvantes which he had sent to Paris to be gilded, one heliocentric and the other geocentric. It was these that had caught the eye of de Lalande who had seen them at the gilders and re-called Janvier to be re-introduced to the Royal Court, this time to Louis XVI. The King immediately bought the pair of miniature orreries for his personal collection and placed them in his study in Versailles. Janvier was also a prolific writer.
JANVIER
Antide Janvier was born on 1 July 1751 in Brive near St. Claude in the Jura mountains. His father, although recorded as a farm labourer, referred to himself as 'Master Clockmaker' on the baptism certificate of his second son. His father recognised his son's precocious talent and from the age of thirteen Antide was selected to study under the Abbé Tournier at Saint-Claude.
By 1770 he was in the service of Mr. Devanne as an apprentice clockmaker. Through great audacity Janvier managed to gain himself an audience with Louis XV in Paris but his impudence stood him in poor stead and he was sent packing to Verdun.
Having married and settled there as a clockmaker he came to the attention of Monsieur de Lalande, the famous professor of Astronomy at the Collège de France. Janvier had made two small Sphères mouvantes which he had sent to Paris to be gilded, one heliocentric and the other geocentric. It was these that had caught the eye of de Lalande who had seen them at the gilders and re-called Janvier to be re-introduced to the Royal Court, this time to Louis XVI. The King immediately bought the pair of miniature orreries for his personal collection and placed them in his study in Versailles. Janvier was also a prolific writer.