Lot 490

Janvier à Paris, No. 176, Height 1540 mm, circa 1791
An important, large Directoire lyre mantel clock with date indication and hour self strike
Case: brass, firegilt. The lyre case of walnut decorated with acanthus and wreath of flowers, surmounted by quiver and torch. Dial: enamel dial, small auxiliary dial for the date inside the hour hand. Movm.: circular brass full plate movement, signed, 2 barrels, 1 hammer / 1 bell, pinwheel escapement, grid iron and brass pendulum mounted on pins.
Kindly supported by Michel Hayard, author of the Janvier reference book
"Thank you very much for the photos and the dimensions. With these details, I confirm that it is a clock made by Janvier, and according to my records, this artist made it probably between March and June 1791 when he was located in the “Menus Plaisirs” in Paris."
"The lyre is known as a common attribute of Apollo, whose head surrounded by rays of light forms the top part of the piece. The ornamentation with symbols of the sun-god suits the character of the clock. The English Royal Family owns a model just like the one we have here. "
Source: H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, Vol. I, p. 252.
Antide Janvier was born in Briva on July 1, 1751. He learned his craft from his father Claude Étienne Janvier, who recognized his son’s talent early and encouraged him. Antide studied Latin, Greek, Maths and Astronomy with a local abbot and in 1766, at the age of 15, designed and constructed an armillary sphere (a solar system model), which he presented at the Academy of Sciences in Besançon. The model won him much recognition and on May 24, 1768 he received a letter of appreciation from the academy.
Janvier quickly gained an excellent reputation as a maker of complicated and difficult clocks of superior quality, including many pendulum clocks, globes, astronomical clocks, spheres and planetaria.
In 1783 he created two spheres for King Louis XVI and was also clockmaker to his brother, later King Louis XVIII. During the time of the French Revolution Janvier spend quite some time in prison because of these royal connections; afterwards he had severe financial problems because lot of his work had not been paid for. Between 1789 and 1801 Janvier produced one of his best pieces - a clock that operated an armillary sphere.
Janvier also produced clocks for Abraham-Louis Breguet, which Breguet sold under his own name. In 1802, during the time of the Consulate, Janvier opened a clockmaking school. He was appointed clockmaker to King Louis XVIII and won a goldmedal at the exhibition in 1823. In 1825 he was invested into the Legion of Honour or at least nominated as a knight. Antide Janvier died in Paris in the Hôspital Cochin on September 23, 1835 at the age of 84, destitute and forgotten by his peers. His death certificate said "Antide Janvier, stateless" and "cause of death: old age". Today we know just how exceptional a clockmaker Antide Janvier was; the towns of Besançon and Saint-Claude have named streets after him in his honour. The largest collection of his masterpieces that can be viewed by the public is in the Musée Paul-Dupuy in Toulouse.