The Thuret family of clockmakers established themselves as one of the outstanding craftsman-dynasties in 17th- and 18th-century

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Their clocks are signed "Thuret", and distinguishing which member of the Thuret family made a specific clock is sometimes an unrewarding effort.

History

Isaac II Thuret (1630–1706), one of the first French clockmakers to make

pendulum clock A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is a harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dependent on it ...

s, held the royal appointment. His son Jacques III Thuret (1669–1738), was appointed clockmaker to

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

in 1694. A perquisite of the royal appointment was the use of workshops in the

Galeries du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's List of most-visited museums, most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ' ...

, where since the time of Henri IV, the outstanding artists, designers and craftsmen were granted workshop spaces, fostering cross-fertilisation among the arts. As one consequence there are numerous clocks by the Thuret dynasty in cases of rich tortoiseshell and brass marquetry designed by

André Charles Boulle André-Charles Boulle (11 November 164229 February 1732), ''le joailler du meuble'' (the "furniture jeweller"), became the most famous French cabinetmaker and the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry, also known as "inlay". Boulle was "t ...

; one such remarkable clock by Jacques Thuret or his father is at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. Another example, the

Barometer Clock ''Barometer Clock (Boulle)'' by André-Charles Boulle is a late seventeenth-century French clock created out of ebony, turtle shell, brass, gilt bronze, and enamel. The clock case is decorated on all sides and was intended as either a centerpiec ...

, is at the

Frick Collection The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the 945 Madison Avenue#2021–present: Frick Madison, Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and Europe ...

. Jacques III Thuret married a daughter of the royal designer Jean Bérain the Elder, whose designs he assembled and published ; his daughter Suzanne married the painter, draughtsman and engraver

Charles François Silvestre Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

.Michael Bryan, ''Dictionary of Painters and Engravers: Biographical and Critical'', ''s.v.'' "Charles François Silvestre".

Notes

External links

A Longitude Timekeeper - Isaac Thuret with the Balance Spring invented by Christiaan Huygens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thuret French clockmakers