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Conversation
about a Masonic clock
Gil Baillod
As a five-year-old, Dominique Mouret used to cling
to his grandmother’s skirts as she did the rounds of
the auctions to indulge her obsession for antiques.
And when he was old enough to look after himself
he too dug around the second-hand shops for gears
and machinery he could take apart, spending the
pocket-money his blacksmith grandfather used to
give him for doing errands or chores. In the smoke
of the forge, he used the tools that had calloused a
grown-up’s hands to cut and bend wire or bits of tin
and transform model cars into hypothetical racers.
Dominique Mouret’s hobbies flowered into a vocation that sealed his destiny as a clockmaker.
Decades later, he still goes around the antique
shops and auction sales of Europe, but now he’s
an internationally renowned expert on antique
clocks, as well as a maker and restorer of clocks.
His enthusiasm for junk shops and sales remains
alive. With his hands in his pockets and a knowing
look, he can discern beneath a dust-covered dial
with missing hands, a fine antique enamel or a
mechanism that’s worth freeing from rust and
mould. “You have to see beyond time,” he remarks,
fondly recalling emotive discoveries in flea markets
on the fringe of the great auction sales.
This is how thousands of old parts came to be
accumulated in his workshops in Sainte-Croix –
from small pinions to peculiar mechanisms “that
might one day serve as models to ensure that an
antique clock is correctly restored.”
Dominique Mouret at his workbench.
The life of a clockmaker. The young Dominique’s
predilections do not go unnoticed by his parents,
who enrol him in the Anet watchmaking school in
Dreux near Chartres. He then goes to the
Technicum in Le Locle in 1976 to complete his
horological studies. This is where he discovers a
preference for antique clocks and in particular
domestic clocks. Two apprenticeships of two years
each with Erwin Eisenegger in La Chaux-deFonds, then with Otto Scherer in Bern, both eminent clock-restorers, convince the Frenchman to
settle in Switzerland. The “astonishing” Bergeon
catalogue of tools is also a decisive factor.
At the watch and clock exchange of La Chaux-deFonds in 1984, Dominique Mouret comes across
watchmaker Michel Parmigiani who tells him about
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a project to set up an international centre of
mechanical craftsmanship in Sainte-Croix. He
goes to have a look and decides to stay there and
take part in the project. Four years later he sets up
the Techniques Horlogères Appliquées company
with François-Paul Journe to make sympathique
clock-and-watch combinations. Within three years
the workshop employs 30 people.
However he misses working at his own bench,
because in addition to managing the workshop
he’s working for himself in Sainte-Croix. He
expands his tool set to meet the demand for
restorations and evaluations coming in from museums and collectors and finds it difficult to make
time for his own creations.
The most difficult job he has done until then is to
restore a double-pendulum, half-second resonance clock made by Antide Janvier in 1810. The
oldest clock he has restored was a renaissance
table clock from Blois, made in 1547. References
to his work appear in specialised publications.
Word of mouth and his presence at sales throughout Europe enable him to build up a vast network.
Something in an old catalogue. In 1986, looking
through an old sales catalogue from the late 1960s,
he comes across the description of a rare
Neuchâtel clock dated 1749 by Josué Robert. It
was lavishly decorated with Masonic symbols. He
cuts out the advertisement and files it away. Where
had that clock been during the 260 years since it
had been made? It was probably commissioned by
a freemason from Neuchâtel and had been with his
family for many years until they got rid of it, presumably because freemasonry had gone out of fashion.
Then one day the clock re-emerges, when a collector from Zurich decides to sell his collection. A
client of Dominique Mouret from Lucerne buys it,
after asking his advice. But in 2003 the Lucerne
collector also sells out, and Dominique Mouret
acquires some pieces, including the unique clock
by Josué Robert, “Clockmaker to the King
of Prussia and to the court in La Chaux-de-Fonds”,
meticulously described in a monograph by
Ariane Maradan.
The clock remained out of sight for seven years.
Dominique Mouret has now just finished the
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restoration work. It was in a very good condition to
begin with, despite a few unsuitable alterations
over the years. It is quite likely that nobody dared
touch the highly complicated movement of more
than 200 parts – about twice as many as in an ordinary clock of the mid-18th century. Its constructor,
Josué Robert, was a contributor to the Traité d’horlogerie mécanique et pratique, the horological treatise by Antoine Thiout consulted by every
clockmaker, including Dominique Mouret, since it
was published in 1741. He owns the copy that
once belonged to Abraham-Louis Perrelet, the
18th-century Neuchâtel watchmaker noted for his
selfwinding movements.
The language of a craftsman’s hands. The
restoration of the Masonic clock was an exacting
task, rewarded by a unique dialogue between two
clockmakers 260 years apart, speaking with the
same actions of hand and file, Josué Robert
patiently answering Dominique Mouret’s questions. It was one of those privileged encounters
known only to the most sensitive restorers.
Josué Robert, the distinguished Neuchâtel clockmaker born in 1691 and buried on May 1, 1771,
was a child of the Enlightenment – an era that was
also the golden age of horology, impelled by the
need to find longitude (see story on page 40). It was
also the heyday of young entrepreneurs, who, like
Voltaire, turned their backs on King and Church –
the French Revolution is just around the corner.
From the start of the 18th century a new ideology
started to spread in France from England. It was a
universal movement with ethical and humanistic
aims, working for progress in a spirit of brotherhood
and solidarity. It was known as freemasonry.
The first French Masonic lodge opened in Paris in
1726. Neuchâtel’s first lodge was in 1743, followed
by Le Locle in 1774 and La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1819.
The freemason king. Frederick the Great, King of
Prussia and also sovereign prince of Neuchâtel,
was the grand master of the Berlin lodge and protector of the Neuchâtel lodge. It is very likely that
Josué Robert’s order in around 1745 for a clock
decorated with Masonic symbols came from
Neuchâtel. Was the clock commissioned for the
© Sylvie Margot
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The striking works before restoration with the repeating mechanism on the lower right. The small dial in the middle is to set
the alarm. At a height of 43 mm between plates measuring 163 x 141mm, the movement contains 200 parts, or double the
number usually found at that time in a comparable space.
Neuchâtel lodge or was it a gift to Berlin from some
Prussian official in the principality ? Whatever the
answer, the workshop of Josué Robert was the
natural source of such a clock. Highly regarded by
his 450 clockmaking peers in the Montagnes and
Val-de-Travers regions, Josué Robert was then at
the height of his prowess.
Several striking trains. The clock’s movement
has three independent gear trains, the barrels of
which have diameters between 65 and 70 mm giving a 14-day running time. The timekeeping train in
the centre has a verge escapement with a thread-
suspended pendulum. The striking train for the
quarter hours goes from its right (the four quarters
are struck before the chime of the hours). On its left
is the train for the hours struck on the main bell.
Repeating works, activated by pulling a chord, are
located beneath the striking train for the quarters,
while the mechanism for the alarm is integrated
into the going train for the movement. In fact the
repeater and the alarm constitute two additional
gear-trains, bringing the total to five, all packed
into a space measuring 163 x 141 x 43 mm overall. Each of the three mainsprings is inscribed :
J. Constans à La Chaux-de-Fonds ce 8e may 1749.
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J. Constans also worked with P. Jaquet-Droz to
create the Shepherd’s clock. The Robert, JaquetDroz and Sandoz (clock cases) families were
closely linked both in business and by marriage.
A case for investigation. The case marks a transition between the so-called Louis XIV style of
Neuchâtel clocks and the Louis XV style. Its
entirely veneered exterior is an exceptional
requirement.
The cabinet-maker for the case was most probably
Abram-Louis Sandoz (1712-1766), even though
Josué Robert, his sons and Pierre Jaquet-Droz
had direct contacts with cabinetmakers and
bronze-founders in Paris for their luxury clock
cases. They turned to Sandoz for the simpler
cases. Fine decors in pierced and engraved brass
are nailed to the cabinet. They can be seen as a
Neuchâtel version of the Boulle style of decoration,
popular since the end of the 17th century.
The uncommon aspects of this clock – the style of
its case, the veneer, the Masonic symbols
(described with the help of Michel Cugnier), the
cartouche chapter on the dial, the workmanship
and complexity of the movement and the prestigious signature – herald the amazing examples of
clockmaking that were to emerge in La Chaux-deFonds during the second half of the 18th century.
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The language of freemasonry. With the help of
Michel Cugnet, from the Friendship lodge in
La Chaux-de-Fonds, this is what can be said about
the symbols decorating the clock (from top and left):
Hat
Crossbones : in alchemy, crossed tibias represent
the philosopher’s secret fire that dissolves matter.
Skull : “I was once as you are ; you will be what I
am.” The skull, denoting time, is found in the meditation rooms for initiates into freemasonry.
Beard
Feet at right angles : the position of the feet for a ritual step.
The level and the plumb line: the level is the Masonic
emblem for the senior warden, responsible for the
instruction of his brethren. The plumb line denotes
the junior warden in charge of the apprentices. They
are respectively used to check horizontals and verticals and symbolise equality and rectitude.
Armillary sphere : symbol of universality, the
sphere is made up of the circles of the equator, the
tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and the ecliptic.
Face
Griffins: in contrast to the basket of flowers, the two
squirrels and the crowned effigy, which appear to
be secular decorative elements, the two griffins
could have a meaning in alchemy, where the mythical creature is associated with the union of
philosopher’s sulphur and quicksilver, the first
being stable (lion, male) and the second, volatile
(eagle, female).
Main body
Knotted or tufted cord : a rope with knots or love
knots in figures of eight representing infinity.
Thirteen knots at equal distances produce 12 equal
spaces, which allow a right angle to be constructed.
The rope is tufted at its ends.
Pillars : the two pillars at the entrance of the temple
of Solomon were called Jachin, which represents
the active male principle denoted by the sun, and
Boaz, the passive female moon. The two aspects
complement one another. Jachin is usually on the
right and Boaz on the left, but the position of the pillars is of no significance.
The square and compasses: the square and compasses are the basic symbol of freemasonry. The
two mason’s tools are always joined.
The trowel and gavel : the gavel is used to dress
stones while the trowel is used to cement them
together.
“M” : in the centre, the monogram standing for
masonry.
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