About jaquet-droz

THE STORY OF THE JAQUET-DROZ FAMILY

Pierre Jaquet-Droz was born in 1721 on a small farm (La Ferme de Sur le Pont) in La Chaux-de-Fonds. He began to take a serious interest in clockmaking and precision mechanics under the tutelage of older relatives from the Brandt-dit-Grieurin, Sandoz and Robert families. It proved to be a true revelation for him.

From 1738 to 1747, Pierre Jaquet-Droz devoted himself entirely to clockmaking. He produced a series of longcase (or “grandfather”) clocks whose increasingly sophisticated movements outclassed anything that had yet been produced. His manual dexterity, meticulous nature and serious approach to his craft, as well as the reasoned application of mechanical principles, led him to enhance his watchmaking movements with music and automata. Within no time, his creations had caught the attention of a wealthy and demanding clientèle.

THE JOURNEY TO SPAIN

By the time he married Marianne Sandoz in 1750 he was firmly established in his profession. Soon after the birth of his two children, Julie in 1751 and Henri-Louis in 1752, Pierre Jaquet-Droz lost his wife, followed by his daughter in 1755. He never remarried, devoting himself entirely to clockmaking. In an encounter that would change the course of his life and prove decisive to his international career, he met George Keith, Earl Marischal, governor of the principality of Neuchâtel, who advised him to present his creations abroad, especially in Spain where he could help introduce him to the court. With this support, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his father-in-law and a young hired hand named Jacques Gevril, built a carriage specially designed to carry six clocks and set off for Spain in 1758. Leaving Switzerland behind them, they traveled for 49 days and were received in Madrid by Don Jacinto Jovert, a Spanish nobleman. After a wait of several months, Pierre Jaquet-Droz presented his clocks to King Ferdinand VI of Spain. The presentation was a triumph; the monarch and his court were dumbfounded at the sight of a clock that could strike on request without needing manual intervention. A few days later, the clockmaker received 2,000 gold pistoles in payment for the timepieces that he had brought to Spain, all of which were purchased for the royal palaces of Madrid and Villaviciosa.

AUTOMATA

AUTOMATA Upon his return to La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1759, the large sum of money he had brought back from Spain enabled Pierre Jaquet-Droz to concentrate exclusively on making watches and clocks and the automata that were to make his name. He set to work, assisted by his son Henri-Louis and a neighbor’s son, Jean-Frédéric Leschot, whom he had taken in after the death of the boy’s mother and thought of as his adoptive son. This was the beginning of a close and fruitful partnership. From 1773 onwards, Jaquet-Droz and Leschot perfected and marketed increasingly sophisticated automata. Their work culminated with the three humanoid automata: The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician, presented in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1774. These three masterpieces, admired by connoisseurs from all over the world, consolidated the reputation of Pierre Jaquet-Droz and the success of the business. Encouraged by this success, the Jaquet-Droz family took to the road to exhibit their fabulous creations. From La Chaux-de-Fonds they traveled to Geneva and then, in 1775 to Paris where they presented the automata to Louis XVI and his queen, Marie-Antoinette. They went on to show them at the principal courts of Europe, with visits to London, Holland and Flanders in 1780 and 1781, as well as northern France. They returned to Paris in 1782 and 1783, and traveled to Lyon in 1784. The automata were also demonstrated at the Russian court in Kazan, in Madrid and beyond.