18TH CENTURY CLOCK BY LEPAUTE OF PARIS - REF No. 149

Product Details

H: 20.67 in / 52.5 cm ; W: 27.56 in / 70 cm ; D: 6.11 in / 15.5 cm 

A Fine & Most Impressive French Gilt, Patinated Bronze and White Marble Mantel Clock by Lepaute of Paris, France. Of impressive scale and refined Neoclassical design, the circular white enamel dial signed Lepaute à Paris within a gilt-bronze bezel surmounted by a finely cast and chased gilt bronze eagle with outspread wings perched on a laurel wreath. The clock flanked by two seated classical figures in dark patinated bronze, each reading from an open book, symbolising Knowledge and Wisdom. The central plinth panel finely cast with cherubs in relief, set upon a rectangular white marble base mounted with ormolu friezes of scrolling foliage and masks, raised on toupie feet.

The Lepaute family were among the most renowned horologists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, supplying timepieces to the French royal court and many important clients of the Empire period. The fine casting and crisp chasing of this example, combined with its balanced architectural design, exemplify the high quality of Parisian clockmaking of the period.

Circa 1800-1810

France

Condition: Excellent overall condition with minor wear to gilding consistent with age. Movement complete and of fine quality. Fully serviced and in working order. 
Key present.

Biography:

Jean André Lepaute (born November 23, 1720 in Thonne-la-Long ; † April 11, 1789 in Saint-Cloud ) was a French royal watchmaker .

Jean André Lepaute was born one of nine children of toolmaker , locksmith and guild master André Lepaute and his wife Elisabeth Doulet.

In 1740, at the age of twenty, Jean André went to Paris to apprentice with a clockmaker. Later, he founded his own company there. His good reputation as a clockmaker helped him secure many commissions for the construction of large public clocks . In 1747, his younger brother, Jean Baptiste Lepaute, came to Paris to work in the company.

During this time, he received a commission to build a large clock for the Palais du Luxembourg . Upon the delivery of the clock, he met the astronomer Nicole-Reine Étable de la Brière . The two fell in love and married on August 27, 1748. From then on, Jean André lived in the Palais du Luxembourg. The young couple often entertained friends from aristocratic circles. Together with his wife Nicole, he worked on calculations for his astronomical clocks , calendar clocks, and planetary machines .

In 1751 he began working as a royal clockmaker for Louis XV .

In 1754, the then-young Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais demonstrated a new escapement he had invented, the so-called double-comma escapement , to Jean André Lepaute. Lepaute immediately recognized the significance of this invention and published it under his own name at the French Academy of Sciences in 1754. Upon learning of this, Pierre Augustin Caron immediately wrote to the Academy. Using an article from the Parisian newspaper Mercure de France , which had reported on Beaumarchais's double-comma escapement even before Lepaute's publications, he was able to definitively prove that Beaumarchais was the originator of the new escapement. The Academy accepted his argument and granted him the patent .

In 1774, Jean André Lepaute retired from the business, leaving it to his nephews Pierre-Basile Lepaute and Pierre Henry Lepaute . He died a year after his wife at the age of 68 in Saint Claude, near Paris. Jean André Lepaute was the founder of the Lepaute watchmaking dynasty.