There’s now one more reason to visit F.P. Journe’s fabled workshop in the heart of Geneva: the exhibition space of the historic building that is already home to an historically important astronomical clock made for the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855 by C.L. Detouche, ceiling frescoes from approximately 1550 once gracing the abode of astronomer Apianus, and a breathtaking resonance precision regulator made by Antide Janvier now also boasts the arrival of nearly one thousand books, manuscripts, letters, and catalogues once belonging to the extensive horological library of Jean-Claude Sabrier.
Sabrier, who passed away at the age of 76 in November 2014, was a celebrated Swiss horological expert and distinguished historian. He is rightfully viewed as one of the great names in horological knowledge at a time when such expertise was rare to the brink of extinction. And he was a close confidante of François-Paul Journe, accompanying him through both the early and the later stages of his own stellar career.
Sabrier began his career in the 1960 s as a consultant to the Musée des Arts et Techniques at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. He also consulted with museums in Evreux, Rouen, Toulouse, and Blois as well as the now-defunct Time Museum in Rockford, Illinois, USA. In the 1980 s he entered the auction house environment, working with Switzerland’s Antiquorum and France’s Hervé Chayette to organize the first specialized auctions of collectible horology. By 1988, he was a director at Antiquorum, where he was the principal expert writing the auction catalogues.
He was also a book author. His 1994 tome La Longitude en Mer à l’Heure de Louis Berthoud et Henri Motel won a Naval Academy prize. In 2006, he co-wrote Steel Time with Georges Rigot, and in 2012 he penned The Self-Winding Watch: 18 th – 21st Century. In addition to authoring and co-authoring articles appearing in numerous specialized journals, he also helped organize and document a number of important exhibitions. He wrote the Evreux Museum watch catalogue with Bernard Seneca; he co-authored the MIH’s exhibition book on Ferdinand Berthoud and the Tours Museum’s La Dynastie des Le Roy, Horlogers du Roi with Catherine Cardinal. With Anthony Randall he co-wrote the Time Museum’s catalogue of chronometers, and he was also one of the authors of the catalogue belonging to the 1997 MIH exhibition “Abraham Louis Breguet 1743 -1823, L’Art de Mesurer le Temps.”
In 2000, Sabrier officially became a consultant to the Swatch Group in charge of historical and cultural heritage. He was also a personal consultant to group founder Nicolas G. Hayek for the purchases of collectible watches for the group’s various brand museums. In that capacity, he wrote the catalogue for the 2004 exhibition of historical Breguet watches held in Saint Petersburg called “Breguet in the Hermitage.”
Sabrier was not only a member of the prestigious jury of the MIH’s Gaïa Awards, he also received a Gaïa Award in 1977 for his own contributions to the area of historical research.
When they first met 40 years ago in Paris, Sabrier and Journe – 35 and 17 respectively – immediately recognized in each other kindred spirits. Both were irresistibly drawn to the great achievements that constitute milestones in the history of watchmaking as well as the mysteries of the art. This was a profound friendship based on mutual respect, one that F.P. Journe honors and perpetuates by exhibiting this historical library so centrally in his workshop’s exhibition space.
When Sabrier’s library, comprising an extensive collection of written horological masterpieces, auction catalogues, and rare historical letters and workbook excerpts, went up for auction on June 15, 2015 in Paris, the F.P. Journe manufacture acquired all 273 lots – almost one thousand books in total.
Journe found it inconceivable to think that this collection of printed material could be separated, dispersed, and scattered in any and every direction. Thus, Journe commissioned a generous custom-made cabinet to exhibit the unique library’s contents in a place no better suited to holding them: the light and airy exhibition space of the F.P. Journe Manufacture in Geneva.
This library is a testimony to the depth, extent, and pertinence of Jean-Claude Sabrier’s research on the lives and achievements of the world’s greatest master watchmakers. It constitutes a body of work containing crucial technical and historical insights indispensable to understanding these creative men and their achievements.
These printed manuscripts contain veritable treasure, written by greats Masters from the history of horology such as Ferdinand Berthoud, Pierre Le Roy, Antide Janvier, Abraham Louis Breguet, Thomas Mudge, and others.
An excerpt of some of the most exciting printed works includes Ferdinand Berthoud’s research notebook from 1756 to 1786 as well as eleven books and essays published between 1763 and 1811. Five printed elements by Abraham Louis Breguet include an autographed letter from the man who is hailed as the world’s most famous historical watchmaker, a collection of photocopies of workshop notebooks, and other documents. Antide Janvier’s works aren’t remiss here, either; the collection counts nine essays, manuscripts, and letters by the epoch-making watchmaker. There is also an entire section of the library that originally came from Antide Janvier’s own library, which contains works by Berthoud, Le Roy, Robert Robin, and J.H. Magellan to name a few.
Seven of Le Roy’s works take a place of honor in the collection. Louis Moinet’s Nouveau traité general d’horlogerie pour les usages civils et astronomiques is naturally present – and in two different editions (the second edition from 1853 and the third edition from 1875). Thomas Earnshaw’s Longitude, an Appeal to the Public from 1808 can also be found in the collection as can A Description with Plates of the Time-Keeper invented by the late Mr Thomas Mudge, a Narrative.
The collection also includes several tomes written by George Daniels and his English contemporary countrymen such as Andrew Crisford, Anthony Randall and Richard Good, and Edward J. Dent. Naturally, no such collection would be complete without various works by the German expert on tourbillons and Glashütte, Reinhard Meis.
To fully appreciate the extent of this impressive collection, make it a point to visit F.P. Journe’s beautiful workshop in Geneva.
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