Unfortunately, not much is known about Antoine Gaudron, except about his highly accomplished skills. He was born around 1640, became a master clock and instrumentmaker in Paris in 1675 and died in that city in 1714. His last will and testament shows him to be quite rich. He left substantial dowries to all of his three children plus a nicely appointed house filled with precious Chinese porcelain. His oldest clock we know of dates from 1660.
In 1698 Gaudron brought his two sons into his business. The firm then traded not only in clocks but also in precious stones, paintings, mirrors, porcelain, bronze, and jewels. Gaudron was one of the first Parisian clockmakers to use Huygens’s newly invented long pendulum in his clocks. He also made the first well working air pump, also a Huygens’s invention. Gaudron himself invented some interesting clock movements too, with both complicated and simple astronomical indications, like this clock has. The famous André Charles Boulle supplied the elaborate clock case.
Andre Charles Boulle