A rare small Audience table regulator with a ten-minute sweep hand  and with thermometer of eight day duration by Antide Janvier,

numbered 304 and dated "An 8ème"

Paris, dated 1800

Height 30.5 cm 

Antide Janvier (1751-1835), like Bourdier and other eminent eighteenth century artists was committed to the science of clockmaking. Janvier made precision clocks of almost unprecedented accuracy, and like Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) created some of the world's most complex and sophisticated clocks, of which this small table regulator is a fine example. The various dials are indicative of its internal ingenuity Even more remarkable is the fact that the complex movement is neatly arranged within a case of only 22 cm. high, since most table regulators, (of which only few were made) tended to be larger.

As Louis XVl's official clock-maker, Janvier was given lodgings and a workshop in the Louvre from where he supplied clocks for the royal palaces. During the Revolution Janvier and another royal clockmaker, Robert Robin (1742-1809) were imprisoned; though later Janvier was employed by the new government, advising on a new decimal system of time measurement.