Voyage Fait par Ordre du Roi, 1768–1769
Ferdinand Berthoud, 1768–1769
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 12% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyFerdinand Berthoud was Harrison's great continental rival — clockmaker to the French crown, author of the monumental Essai sur l'horlogerie, and builder of the horloges marines France sent to sea by royal order in 1768 to be proven against the ocean itself. This leaf from the published account of that voyage is the French longitude story in one printed page: the state, the ship, and the clock, joined in a single experiment to make the sea navigable by time.
- Maker
- Ferdinand Berthoud
- Date
- 1768–1769
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- via Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- via Wikimedia Commons · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00537
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 8 x 12 in | 140 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 11 x 14 in | Wrong shape: a 10% crop |
| 12 x 16 in | 99 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 18 in | 93 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | 70 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 24 in | 66 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | 56 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | 46 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 40 in | 39 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 33 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | 28 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,190 x 1,684 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 83, lights 255 of 255; 73.4% clipped light, 0.9% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 19.4
- Notes
- Pure white on 73% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
- A plain margin is part of the file (5% of an edge): it prints as part of the picture
The Complication
Huygens’s pendulum, Harrison’s chronometer engravings and the astronomical tower.
All 19 pieces from The Complication
