Upon his return to La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1759, the large sum of money brought back from Spain enabled Pierre Jaquet Droz to concentrate exclusively on making watches, clocks and automata destined to become famous. He set to work, assisted by his son Henry-Louis and a neighbor's son, Jean-Frédéric Leschot, whom he took in after the boy's mother died and thought of as his own. This was the beginning of a close and fruitful partnership.
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From 1773 onward, Jaquet Droz and Leschot perfected and marketed increasingly sophisticated automata. Their work culminated with the three humanoid automata: The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician, presented in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1774. These three masterpieces, admired by connoisseurs from all over the world, consolidated the reputation of Pierre Jaquet Droz and the success of the business. Encouraged by this success, the Jaquet Drozes took to the road to exhibit these fabulous creations. They took them from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Geneva and then, in 1775, to Paris where they were presented to Louis XVI and his queen, Marie-Antoinette. They were shown in the most prominent courts of Europe, with visits to London, the Low Countries and Flanders in 1780/1781 as well as northern France. They returned to Paris in 1782 and 1783, and exhibited in Lyon in 1784. The automata also travelled to the Russian court in Kazan and to Madrid.Background color
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