Orrery clock

Louis Thouverez French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 553


Eighteenth-century scholars developed orreries to model planetary motion in three dimensions. This example uses the heliocentric model (with the sun rather than the earth at its center) first proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus in the sixteenth century. Decorative spring-driven orreries such as this one were popular among the learned aristocracy: Louis Thouverez served as clockmaker to the duke of Orléans, cousin of King Louis XVI.

Orrery clock, Louis Thouverez (French, master 1788– died after 1823), Cast and gilded bronze, Carrara marble, copper, brass, steel, enamel, French, Paris

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Orrery clock, Louis Thouverez (French, master 1788– died after 1823), Cast and gilded bronze, Carrara marble, copper, brass, steel, enamel, French, Paris
Orrery clock, Louis Thouverez (French, master 1788– died after 1823), Cast and gilded bronze, Carrara marble, copper, brass, steel, enamel, French, Paris
Orrery clock, Louis Thouverez (French, master 1788– died after 1823), Cast and gilded bronze, Carrara marble, copper, brass, steel, enamel, French, Paris

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