It is interesting to note that this chronometer, produced in the year of Ferdinand Berthoud's death by his last pupil, is built on the pattern of those produced by Louis Berthoud from 1786 onward. Only the dial is still inspired by the work of Ferdinand. For Jean Martin, see notes and biography for the previous lot. PIERRE LOUIS BERTHOUD 1754 - 1813 Pierre Louis Berthoud vas born in November 1754 in the hamlet of Plancement, near Couvet, in the Val de Travers, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. At the age of 12, he began his apprenticeship in his father's workshop. He was scarcely 15 when his exceptional talents were noticed by his uncle, the famous Ferdinand Berthoud, who invited him to Paris to improve his knowledge and begin to learn precision clockmaking. When he arrived in Paris in 1769, Ferdinand Berthoud had already an apprentice, Vincent Martin, engaged in 1767 to help with the construction of marine clocks numbers 6 and 8, ordered by the King. Ten years later, about 1779, Ferdinand Berthoud retired to Groslay, in the Montmorency valley, to devote himself exclusively to his researches, at a property acquired in 1767. The reponsibility of his workshop in Paris was entrusted to his other nephew Henry Berthoud, brother of Louis. Henry was then charged, with Vincent Martin, with the construction of marine clocks and watches. On several occasions, Ferdinand Berthoud asked in vain to have his nephew Louis officially attached to his establishment. Disappointed by frequent refusais, Louis Berthoud decided to return to Couvet to set up his own establishment there. A short time after returning home, Louis learned of the suicide of his brother Henry, which took place on 29 June 1783. His uncle asked him to return to Paris to take over the running of his business and help him to restore order in his affairs. Louis Berthoud accepted this offer and arrived in Paris, doubtless at the very beginning of May 1784. On 19 May, Ferdinand wrote once again to the Minister to obtain a pension for his nephew. This time a decision favourable to Louis's establishment was quickly taken. On 5 June 1784 it was decided that: The Sieur Louis Berthoud will be naintained in Paris in the qualil-y of Pupil Clockrnaker Mechanical Expert to the Navy at the animal salant of 1000 livres, to begin on the first of the current month. This decision was slightly disappointing, for Ferdinand had requested for his nephew an annual sum of 1,500 livres. In this saine year, Louis married Thérèse Bezout, niece and adopted daughter of the surveyor Etienne Bezout, mathematician and member of the Académie des Sciences. If it is sometimes an advantage to be the nephew of a famous man, who has great experience and many powerful friends, it is equally certain that this can also present serious inconveniences. It is especially difficult to make a name for oneself, when endowed with one as famous as that of Berthoud Louis worked in his uncle' s shadow with some bitterness, especially as all the timepieces leaving the workshop had to bear Ferdinand's signature. After he had examined one of the anchor watches made in England by Emery, and even more closely one made in France on the same model, Louis Berthoud produced, in 1785, a series of watches based on this principle. But, he soon decided to abandon the anchor escapement in favour of a detent escapement. Thus it was the pivoted detent escapement that lie chose for the longitude watch, which could be carried in a waistcoat pocket, that lie supplied in 1787 to M. Chastenet de Puységur. This watch already possessed the essential features of all the chronometers that lie ivas to make. Tested for aine months, from March to December 1789, at the Royal Observatory, by M. Nouët, this watch was then presented to the Royal Academy of Science on 10 May 1790. Following this, in 1792, upon a recommendation from the Consultative Bureau, the Minister of the Interior, in conformity with the laie of 12 September 1791, granted the sum of 6,000 livres to Louis Berthoud for this watch , the highest amount of the first class of national rewards, as well as an honourable mention. The mechanism of this watch, of an entirely new conception, was described by Louis Berthoud in the sealed envelope deposited at the Academy on 9 May 1792. In 1796 lie obtained an official lodging at the Hôtel d'Egmont-Pignatelli, 11 Place des Piques (Place Vendôme), where the Navy depot was established in 1795. to be contirnred 148 In Year VI of the Republic, the First Class of the French Institute declared a prize of 3,000 francs, in order to obtain the greatest exactitude in the composition and execution of marine watches. Louis Berthoud decided to present his watch number 27, made in 1795 for the Chevalier de Fleurieu, and his watch number 32. The commission , responsible for examining the watches entered in the competition, remained undecided for a long time, being unable to choose between two of them. Both were perfect, both, submitted to the most rigorous tests, showed astonishing regularity, as well as extreme refinement of execution. The decision was finally taken to split the prize between the authors of these two watches. They were the two watches entered by Louis Berthoud, \vho christened them respectively: Ma Liberté fait nia Constance ( My Freedom makes my Constancy), and Au Temps qui instruit ( To Time that teaches). At the Exhibition of Products of French hldustry in Year X of the Republic (1802) he presented his finest achievements, including one of the two watches which won the Institute prize in Year VI, and an astronomical dock. For the first time he revealed the movement of his longitude watches and docks, and explained the means employed to reduce friction, compensate the effects of temperature, ensure the isochronicity of the hairspring, etc... The Jury justified in the following ternis the gold medal then awarded to him. This artist lias triade kriowu the (workings of the) nieclimnsln of his longitude matches or finie ke'epers, whose exactitude, confirmed lui precise and repeafed experinlents, liane alreadt/ cmised him to be awarded n prize by tlic' Institute of France. He lias made (an astronomical dock with the greatest perfection, in winch the effects of friction are lessened by menus of extremely ingenious methods. On 24 Vendémaire Year VI (16 October 1802) a decree of the Consuls apppointed him Clockmaker Mechanical Expert to the Navy, with a salary of 1,000 francs, and by a decision of 16 Messidor Year XIII (5 July 1805) the Bureau of Longitude conferred upon him the title of Clockmaker to the Observatory and of the Bureau of Longitude. Although the title of the King's Mechanical Expert responsible for inspecting Naval Clocks had not been withdrawn from his uncle Ferdinand Berthoud, his functions nere henceforth limited to the maintenance and repair of the instruments that he had previously supplied. In 1804, a decision vas taken to found a Naval School of Clockmaking. Seven pupils, from the Imperial College of Arts and Trades in Châlons were chosen to be instructed at government expense. In conformity with the hnperial Decree of 10 March 1806, and a proposai by M. Mollard, Administrator of the Paris Conservatoire of Arts and Trades, Louis Berthoud \vas made responsible by the Duc de Cadore to train four of these pupils: MM. Motel, Henriot, Saulnier, and Laurent, the three others being entrusted to Messieurs Lenoir and Fortin. During their six years of apprenticeship, they lived at Argenteuil, in the house of Louis Berthoud, who received 2,000 francs a year for each. hl a letter of 19 December 1808, the Minister for the Navy informed Louis Berthoud that : Acting upon las proposai, the Emperor, by a decree of 26 Noneniber last, lias approned that flic annual salary of 1, 000 francs which was allotted fo him by the decision of 24 Vendémaire Year VI (16 October 1802) should be increased to 3,000 francs from 1 January 1809. In 1812 Louis Berthoud published his Entretens sur l'horlogerie à l'usage de la Marine adressés aux quatre élèves qui ont été confiés ri l'auteur, Paris, 1812. In this little book, published a year before his death, Louis Berthoud gave to his pupils, in the form of twelve conversations, his last advice and counsels, so that they could successfully exercise the difficult trade which they had chosen. Louis Berthoud had two sons: ? Jean Louis Simon Henri, usually called Louis, like his father, born in Argenteuil on 7 October 1793, died in Argenteuil on 15 April 1880. On 17 April 1819 he married in Paris Thérèse Joly, the daughter of a watch case maker. ? Charles Auguste, born in Argenteuil on 17 Novemebr 1798, died in the same tocan on 15 February 1876. He married in Paris on 26 January 1822, Henriette Pauline Joly, the other daughter of the watch case maker. Louis Berthoud died in Chaillot on 18 September 1813 at the age of 59 from the results of a diabetic coma'. See book mentioned above for more details concerning the lite and work of Louis Berthoud. 149 GÉNÉRAL NAPOLÉON BONAPARTE 1769 - 1821 Napoleon Bonaparte, Military General, First Consul and Emperor of France, and the man who most influenced the history of Europe during his age. Born on 15 August 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica, the son of Charles-Marie Bonaparte and Marie-Laetitia Ramolino, he entered the Royal Military school at Brienne at the age of ten, graduating to the artillery school in Paris, from where he passed out in 1785. As a lieutenant in 1786, he was stationed in Corsica, fighting at first for, and then against Paoli, the leader of the faction demanding self-government. h1 1789, whilst garrisoned at Auxonne, he quelled a riot, but he first came to notice on the 10th of August 1792, when he took part in the storming of the Tuileries palace. At the siège of Toulon, held by the EnglisH, he was made commander of the artillery, and conceived a plan to recapture the tocan; it finally fell on the 17th of December 1793. Bonaparte was promoted to Brigadier General and made Artillery Commander of the army in Italy. However, as a close friend of Robespierre's brother Augustin, he vas at first arrested after the 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794), but subsequently released. Returning from Italy in March 1795 he refused to accept a command in Vendée and vas reduced to the ranks. The first coalition against France had been organised in 1792, but the Treaty of Baste in 1795, established a separate peace with Prussia and Spain; England, Austria and Piemont, continuing the var. On 2 March 1796, Bonaparte was named as general in charge of the French forces in Italy, and proclaimed to his men: "Soldiers you are badly clothed, badly fed.... I will lead you to the most fertile plains in the world...There you will find honour, glory and riches." Between the 9th of April and the 10th of May 1796 Napoleon split the Austrians from the Piemontais by his victories at Monternotte and Millesimo. He defeated General Colli at Mondori, followed by the Austrians at Lodi, and entered Milan in triumph, after which his soldiers nicknamed him Le Petit Caporal. On the 3rd and the 5th of August he won the baffles of Lonato and Castiglione against the Austrian general Wurmser, and in November of the sanie year, narrowly escaped death at the bridge of Arcole, his life being saved by Lannes ( later made Marshal) who was wounded, and Muiron, who was killed. January 1797 saw the victory at Rivoli, the capitulation of Wurmser at the siege of Mantoue, and the forces of the Archduke Charles forced to retreat. Bonaparte, now the protector of two Italian Republics, was virtually a sovereign ruler. In October, the Austrians sued for peace at Leoben, signing the Treaty of Campo-Formio which ceeded Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine to France. Bonaparte returned to France in triumph in December 1797. Having decided to attack England through Egypt with the intention of cutting off the trade route to the Indias, Napoleon embarked on his Egyptian campaign on 19th May 1798, setting sait on board the Orient. He captured Malta en route and disembarked his army at Alexandria. On 21th July, at the battle of the Pyramids, Bonaparte announced to his troops:" Soldiers, from the summit of the pyramids, forty centuries of history looks clown on you." He \vent on to defeat the Mameluks, but the French fleet was destroyed by Nelson at Aboukir on lst August. In February 1799, already master of Egypt, Bonaparte pu sued the Turkish army into Syria and was again victorious at Mount Thabor, but the onset of plague amongst his troops forced him to lift the siege of Saint-Jean-d'Acre. His final victory was against mercenary troops at Aboukir on the 25th July, after which he decided to leave General Kleber in command and return to France. Disembarking at Fréjus on the 9th October 1799, Bonaparte was feted throughout his journey to Paris. The remainder of Napoleon Bonaparte's life as a Consul and Emperor is as well documented as his early career as a soldier, but falls after the period when he bought this clock and was entered by Breguet in their sales book as Général Bonaparte. 150 , r . I , ( l n / r ( - ( u r r : , r / < ~ ' ? ' e detail of the lot 98 Denis Decres 1761-1820 Admirai born at Château Villain (Haute-Marne). A midshipman in the Gardes Marines in 1779, he vent to the Antilles where he distinguished himself in the fighting in this region. He was next sent to the Indian Ocean from 1790 to 1794 and then took part in the expedition to Ireland. Rear-Admiral at the battle of Aboukir where he commanded the light squadron, he escaped in the Guillaume Tell, but between Malta and Toulon fell upon an English squadron and was forced to surrender after fierce resistance which won him the praise of Bonaparte. He was nominated Prefet Maritime of Lorient where his ability and honesty were noticed and led to his being appointed Minister of the Marine in 1802, a post which he retained until the fall of the Empire. He vas made Count and Duke by Napoleon and was assassinated by his valet de chambre. To him is owed the reorganisation of the French Fleet and the extensive works executed at Venice, Antwerp, New-Deep, Flushing and Cherbourg. 152 Q Oo me D Oo 1 1 a 1 Q © Réunion des Musées Natio,, aux. Jérôme Bonaparte, Roi de Westphalie, par Jean-Antoine Gros, Maison natale de Napoléon à Ajaccio. 98 J é r ô m e B o n a p a r t e 1 7 8 4 - 1 8 6 0 King of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813, he was born at Ajaccio and was the brother of Napoléon. Installed in the Tuileries after the 18 Brumaire, he married Catherine of Wurtemburg. On 8 December 1807 he arrived in his new capital of Kassel to much acclaim and they reorganised highly prestigious receptions spending without measure as it pleased him, despite the recommendations of the Emperor. Nonetheless he applied his directives in reorganising the administration, establishing the metric system, abolishing serfdom and spreading taxation more equably. Despite these reforms, a large number of the inhabitants of Brunswick and Hesse Ionged for the return of the legitimate sovereign, and Jerôme was forced to flee from Kassel shortly before the city was retaken by Tchernikov and his Cossacks on 30 September 1813. Shortly afterwards the tocan was recaptured by Kellermann and Bonaparte returned to his capital on 16 October 1813. He abandoned his kingdom definitively on 26 October, after the defeat of Leipzig. Following the second abdication of Napoleon, he was allowed in August 1816, to establish himself in Austria under the name of the Count of Montfort. He Look refuge thereafter in Italy. After the election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as Prince-Président, he was appointed Governor of the Invalides and became a Marshal of France in 1850. President of the Senate, he retired to and died at Villegenis (Seine-et-Oise).