A rare and very fine Second Empire gilt bronze and brass precision multi-dial skeleton table regulator of seventeen days duration by Constantin-Louis Detouche à Paris, signed on the main white enamel dial C. Detouche à Paris and also stamped and numbered on the backplate of the movement C. Detouche / 158 R ST. MARTIN 160 / 9733 and Med. D’Argent, the central white enamel dial with Roman numerals and a pair of Breguet style blued steel hands for the hours and minutes, above it a white enamel seconds dial ring with Arabic numerals and blued steel pointer for the seconds and below the main dial a further white enamel dial ring marked with the days of the week with a blued steel pointer, the whole surmounted by an armillary sphere with white enamel band marked with the 31 days of the month. The skeletonised movement, visible behind the seconds dial ring, with Graham anchor escapement and quarter striking on a single bell, with an Ellicot style compensated brass and steel gridiron pendulum and a very heavy brass bob with beat regulation guide. The movement set on a horizontal frame mounted with six turned finials and supported on two pairs of gilt bronze foliate volutes resting upon a stepped oval gilt base. Fitted with a glass case. Paris, date circa 1850 Height 50 cm, width 37 cm, depth 15 cm. Constantin-Louis Detouche (1810-1889), was a horological genius who won numerous silver, gold and other significant medals at the various industrial and universal exhibitions. The quality of the present work, which combines scientific precision with aesthetic elegance, is such that it was most probably shown at one of those exhibitions. In addition to being bestowed the Légion d’Honneur and Le Croix de l’ordre du Dannebrog, he was appointed an official clockmaker to the city of Paris and to the Emperor Napoleon III. He was born in Paris on 10th October 1810, the son of Georges Detouche who from 1803 had a clockmaking business in rue de Venise. Constantin then continued to run it until 1830 when he moved his business to expansive premises at 158-160 rue St. Martin. From there he sold the finest quality precision clocks, scientific instruments as well as jewellery. His company, which was probably the most important French horological firm of its day, was constantly developing and its success brought both critical and financial rewards. In a review of the 1862 Exposition de Nîmes, where Detouche was awarded one of many gold medals exhibition (having been awarded a silver medal in 1849), his firm was singled out by one critic, whose words give an insight into this exceptionally gifted clockmaker. The critic noted “Horology was represented with dignity at the Nîmes exhibition. Above all, we shall cite the House of Detouche de Paris, founded in 1803; its business has increased annually and now retails in France and abroad more than 3 million francs worth of goods. In this figure, horology, from precision items to those for domestic use represent more than 1,200,000 francs. M. Detouche has already received the most prestigious awards; I will just mention: the gold medal at the Exposition Universelle d’Horlogerie at Besançon in 1860, and the gold medal in London in 1862. He was awarded La Croix de la Légion d’Honneur for his contribution toward the progress in horology that resulted from his work, the Croix de Dannebrog was awarded to him by the King of Denmark for his electric clock. Such items deserve to be described in a few details. They present improvements worthy to be known and appreciated by every clockmaker who has benefited from M. Detouche’s work and true service… The jury noted secondly a rocaille style regulator in gilt bronze of a remarkable taste, measuring 1m, 90;…The turnstiles placed at the exhibition and considered indispensable in France and abroad are also the invention of M. Detouche. All of the items shown by this company are to be noted for their modest prices, their elegance, their rich ornamentation and precision, and their skilled workmanship. The jury awards to M. Detouche a diplôme d’honneur.” (“Revue Chronométrique, 8th year, vol. IV, June 1862 – June 1863, “Exposition de Nîmes”, Paris, 1862, pp. 605-609). As an ingenious mechanic and creative inventor, Detouche constantly took out patents for his numerous inventions. One of the first, dated 30th December 1844, was for a new type of alarm clock with mobile keys. The following year, 1845 up until 1859 Detouche appointed Jacques-François Houdin (1783-1860) as his foreman. The latter, who was a member of several scientific associations and father-in-law to the renowned inventor, magician and horological genius Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805-71), came from Blois but decided to move to Paris at Abraham-Louis Breguet’s request. Like Detouche, Jacques-François Houdin’s work was remarkable for its quality, exceptional finish and technical complexity and thus helped establish the outstanding reputation of Detouche’s business. Houdin’s legacy also included the creation and improvement of special escapements and compensating pendulums for regulators and astronomical clocks along with certain improvements in the design of machinery used in the making of wheels and pinions. Within six years of Houdin joining the firm, Detouche showed its work at the Great Exhibition of London, 1851 (the very first universal exhibition), where his firm displayed a number of precision pieces, from large and small regulators to chronometers and mathematical watchwork and were rewarded with a Prize Medal. Among their exhibits was an exceptional astronomical gilt brass wall regulator, which recently this gallery had the honour of acquiring. The year after the Great Exhibition, Detouche took out a patent for a pendulum suspension system and another with F. Brisbard-Gobert for an electro-magnetic clock. That same year he and Houdin took out a patent for a new sonnerie mechanism. Then in 1855 Detouche showed at the Paris Exposition Universelle, where he received a gold medal. The same year he donated two clocks to the Conservatoire Impérial des Arts et Métiers de Paris, namely a master clock with electro-mechanical escapement and a receiver clock (shown at the Exposition Universelle, Paris in 1855). Detouche also gave the Conservatoire Imperial des Arts et Métiers a collection of six complex demonstration escapements. May 1856 saw him and Houdin taking out a patent for an electrical dial that could be used on the city’s gas lanterns. His electrical clocks proved extremely popular and counted among illustrious owners Paul Casimir Garnier and Napoleon III. Among the many exhibitions that he contributed to was the Exposition de Bordeaux as well as the Exposition de Besançon in 1860, where he obtained gold medals at each. That success was followed when Detouche showed at the 1862 Universal Exhibition, London and later at the 1863 Exposition de Nîmes, where again he won gold medals at each. That same year he donated a monumental clock, made at the end of the 1850’s. as a special order for the Conservatoire Imperial des Arts et Métiers, Paris, which was placed in the museum lobby and operated the façade dial and bell; the clock was presented in 1860 to the Société des Encouragements des Arts de Paris, gaining the firm a silver medal. Detouche then took out a patent with Chéradame in April 1864 for improving the illumination of clock dials for night viewing. This was followed in 1866 when he took out a patent for an alarm clock with a spherical case and also for a system for the transmission of movement without the use of angle wheels for use in so-called mystery clocks. Other of Detouche’s prestigious creations include two large astronomical regulators bearing numerous indications such as hours, minutes, seconds, days, months and their dates, sunrise and sunset time, the equation of time, moonrise and moonset, its phases along with its age, as well as the barometric and thermometric variations. On them the main dial is surrounded with fourteen subsidiary dials showing the time in fourteen cities across different latitudes. Those two pieces were adjusted with a compensating pendulum, which was technically innovative for its day. One of the two remained for a long time at the corner of rue Saint-Martin and rue de Rivoli and is now housed in the exhibition room of the watch manufacture, François-Paul Journe SA, Geneva. Other works of distinction include a regulator known as Ephéméridal, which at midnight shows the daily position of the planets during the day, as well as an astronomical clock also of 1851 that indicates the mean time, the date, the day, the month of the year, the equation of time and the time of sunset and sunrise. Detouche’s success was such that in 1850 he bought a plot of land in Villemomble, just east of Paris, where he built a grand mansion. Detouche later served as mayor of Villemomble; he was strongly committed to its modernization and to this end he improved the water supply and also bought a small château which was to serve as its town hall and school. The French government honoured Detouche’s great services and made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour, while Villemomble honoured him when they constructed an imposing mausoleum for him in the cemetery and also named a street after him.