A massive 18th-century astronomical clock, made for King Louis XV of France, could fetch $850,000 at auction

An 18th-century neoclassical clock measuring three meters tall, made by a watchmaker to the King of France, could fetch up to $850,000 at an auction in Paris on June 30.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” watch expert Anthony Hunter told Artnet News by phone. Turner is an independent watch research and heritage consultant.

Nothing else like it has ever been auctioned, auctioneer De Baecque and Associates said, except for the clock itself, which Turner said fetched about 500,000 Swiss francs. (about $758,000 in today’s currency) at its last public sale in 1990 at L’Antiquorum des Habsbourg in Geneva. The new sale will take place at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, where it will be exhibited from June 28 to 30.

A monumental astronomical clock, by Jean Louis Bouchet. Courtesy of De Baecque and Associates.

The clock features a wooden case topped with a decorative urn and rests on a faux marble base. The cabinet is stamped by its author, Jean Baptiste Guillaume Prévost. The clock features what’s called a skeleton movement, which means the inner workings of the mechanism are on display in a glass case with a mirrored backing — very rare for the 1770s, Turner pointed out. The 17th and 18th centuries were a high point in the development of mechanical clocks, made possible by technological innovation, particularly those of Dutch mathematician and physicist Christian Huygens, Turner said.

“Why is it so special? Turner asked rhetorically. “It’s a monumental astronomical clock with all the complications one could hope for. Not only does it tell you sunset and sunrise, where the sun is in the zodiac and the phases of the moon, but also solar time and mean time. In other words, it has two different time indications. One is the time indicated by the sun, which you would see on a sundial. This is the time indicated on the glass dial on the front of the clock. Above, on a set of rotating rings on an urn, it indicates the mean time, that is to say the time indicated by a well-regulated clock. There is a difference, which varies throughout the year.

A monumental astronomical clock, by Jean Louis Bouchet. Courtesy of De Baecque and Associates.

One of the winners of the 2021 Gaia Prize from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, Turner is co-author of the 2022 book A general history of watchmaking (Oxford University Press).

The clock was made for the collector Michel II Velut de La Crosnière around 1770 by Jean Louis Bouchet, who became master clockmaker in 1762 and appointed clockmaker to King Louis XV for the Bellevue castles in 1769. Bouchet clocks reside in the Musée de l ‘Ermitage in St. Petersburg and the National Archives in Paris.

“This clock is unusual,” Turner explained. “Already in the Middle Ages you had a long tradition of monumental clocks, mainly installed in cathedrals or churches or town halls or other public places. It seems to be a slight reduction, a domestication of these clocks for an elegant and rich interior.

A monumental astronomical clock, by Jean Louis Bouchet. Courtesy of De Baecque and Associates.

“The case is extremely modern,” he added. “In the 1770s it was just the time when the fashion developed for carving pictures, figures and columns in wood which could be set on a white wooden background and then gilded, and in this clock you see exactly It was all the rage.

In addition to all the complications, the clock is marked with the names of some 49 places which served as observation stations during the passage of Venus in front of the sun in 1761 and 1769, a turning point in the history of astronomy, which allowed astronomers to accurately measure the size of the solar system.

If all of that isn’t enough for the discerning clock collector, there’s also the fact that it still works.

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