Description

Circular wall clock by Henry-Lepaute, Paris, circa 1890.

5 ½ inch dial, with Roman numerals.

Dial signed: HENRY-LEPAUTE 6, Rue de Lafayette PARIS

Movement and pendulum marked with corresponding serial number : 3901

With winding key.

Width: 33 cm.

Height: 46 cm.

Depth: 12 cm.

Henry-Lepaute:

Augustin Michel Adam Henry-Lepaute,1800 – 1885, was a French horologist and mechanical engineer specializing in lighthouses.

Born Augustin Michel Adam Henry de Pierre Henry, clockmaker to the King, descendant of the Lepaute family of clockmakers through his mother.

A student of Gustave Eiffel, he became the clockmaker to Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III, the latter who authorized him in 1851 to bear, as well as his descendants, the name of Henry-Lepaute.

In 1823 he partnered with Augustin Fresnel, director of Lighthouses and Beacons, and specialized in the construction of lighthouses equipped with rotating optical mechanisms. After the death of Augustin Fresnel in 1827, his brother Léonor Fresnel replaced him on the lighthouse commission and continued his collaboration with Henry-Lepaute for the equipping of the French coast with lighthouses. More than 1300 lighthouses worldwide would be equipped with the Henry-Lepaute system.

In 1837 the Henry-Lepaute company became the exclusive supplier of clocks for the railway networks of the North, Paris to Orléans, the East, and the West.

The Henry-Lepaute company was at 6 Rue Lafayette, Paris, from 1870 to 1911.