Lot 410

Pierre Gaudron à Paris, Height 520 mm, circa 1710
A decorative French Louis XV boulle mantel clock with half hour strike from the watchmaker to the King of France and to the Duc d'Orleans
Case: oak, tortoiseshell veneer, brass fittings, floral ormulu mountings, volute ornaments, toupie feet, glazed front and sides, top surmounted by vases. Dial: brass, gilt, chased decoration, enamel cartouches with radial Roman numerals, below open-worked fret with Cupids, finely cut iron hands. Movm.: rectangular-shaped brass movement, signed, baluster movement pillars, 1 hammer / 1 bell, 2 barrels, verge escapement, count wheel, silk suspended pendulum.
Pierre Gaudron
Gaudron has a reputation as an excellent French watchmaker; he was the son of Antoine Gaudron and the brother of Antoine Gaudron 2. Gaudron, who became master in 1695, worked in Paris from 1690 to 1730; he produced clocks for the government and was watchmaker to the court of the Duc d'Orleans and the King of France.
Historical books on watchmaking often mention Gaudron in connection with Julien Le Roy, Jean-Baptiste Dutertre, Henry Sully and Antoine Thiout. Ferdinand Berthoud makes mention of his "remontoire" in "L'histoire de la Mesure du Temps par les Horloges" (1802). Pierre Gaudron is most likely also the author of the travel diary "Memoire du voyage de Hollande et d’Angleterre que j’ay fait cette année", which tells of a journey to England and the Netherlands in 1715. Gaudron died in 1745; to his friend, the engraver and miniature painter Jean-Baptiste Massé, he bequeathed a miniature by the Venetian artist Rosalba Carriera.
Source: http://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Gaudron,_Pierre, as of 10/07/2014.

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