Claude-Amé-François Dautel

Claude-Amé-François Dautel, whose signature was “Dautel à Paris”, was a Parisian clockmaker who died on September 26^th, 1793. His wife, née Dodonney, had passed away several days before. Active as of the latter part of the reign of Louis XV, he gained a certain amount of fame among knowledgeable Parisian collectors of luxury horology. In the early 1790s, he appears to have entrusted the running of his workshop to his son Claude-André-François, who carried on in his father’s footsteps. During the 18^th century, certain of his clocks were recorded as having belonged to important collectors of the time. One example was a clock mentioned in the posthumous inventory of Cardinal Charles-Antoine de la Roche-Aymon in November 1777. One of his clocks is currently in the Louvre collections (Inv. OA 5131.), a Louis XV period cartel clock stamped by cabinetmaker Jean Goyer (1731) and with a dial signed “Dautel à Paris.”