拍品專文
Antide Janvier, was born on 1st. 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.
In 1766, at the age of fifteen, Antide started to make his first sphère movement which took him a year and a half to complete. Once finished Janvier himself presented it to the Académie des Science at Besançon who showered him with praise and gave him a certificate for his efforts.
By 1770 he was in the service of Mr. Devanne as an apprentice clockmaker where with shades of the great English clockmaker, John Harrison he made another orrery but this time from boxwood. He later made a scaled down version, just 10 inches in diameter, and it was this model that he took on his journey to Paris to make his fortune. By great audacity Janvier managed to gain himself an audience with Louis XV but his impudence stood 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 Collége 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 imediately bought the pair of miniature orreries for his personal collection and placed them in his study in Versailles. After the Revolution the whereabouts of these two miniature orreries became unknown but it now begs the question as to whether the present orrery originally had it own geocentric partner. Janvier, a prolific writer, gave an account of his two miniature orreries that was subsequently printed in Verdun; Déscription de deux machines astronomique présentée au roi, le 24 avril 1784 par Antide janvier, Horloger de Monsieur, Verdun, 1784, op. cit.. The whereabouts of this writing is as yet unknown.
In 1766, at the age of fifteen, Antide started to make his first sphère movement which took him a year and a half to complete. Once finished Janvier himself presented it to the Académie des Science at Besançon who showered him with praise and gave him a certificate for his efforts.
By 1770 he was in the service of Mr. Devanne as an apprentice clockmaker where with shades of the great English clockmaker, John Harrison he made another orrery but this time from boxwood. He later made a scaled down version, just 10 inches in diameter, and it was this model that he took on his journey to Paris to make his fortune. By great audacity Janvier managed to gain himself an audience with Louis XV but his impudence stood 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 Collége 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 imediately bought the pair of miniature orreries for his personal collection and placed them in his study in Versailles. After the Revolution the whereabouts of these two miniature orreries became unknown but it now begs the question as to whether the present orrery originally had it own geocentric partner. Janvier, a prolific writer, gave an account of his two miniature orreries that was subsequently printed in Verdun; Déscription de deux machines astronomique présentée au roi, le 24 avril 1784 par Antide janvier, Horloger de Monsieur, Verdun, 1784, op. cit.. The whereabouts of this writing is as yet unknown.