The history of the Buhre watch company is commonly believed to have begun in 1815, when clock-maker Karl Buhre, together with his son Paul, moved to St. Petersburg from Revel (now Tallinn). For a long time, the craftsman had to challenge tough competition from the Swiss make Breguet, whose clocks and watches were ruinously expensive.
Karl Buhre’s grandson, Pavel Pavlovich, joined the family business at the age of 26. Shortly, their small manufactory gained prominence: due to the fact that the company purchased a clock factory in the Swiss town of Le Lockle and started to manufacture vast variety of widely affordable clocks and watches.
Nowadays the Memorial Estate of N.G. Chernyshevsky safekeeps a Paul Buhre table clock with the power reserve of 8 days. The clock was handed over to the Museum by Alexander Vasilyevich Drobyshev. According to Drobyshev, that item was made by custom manufactured to order from Alexander Nikolayevich Pypin specially for Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky. Pypin presented his gift to his cousin allegedly after 7 July 1862, when the latter was arrested and incarcerated into the Alexeevsky Ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
However, the story by Drobyshev has historic inconsistency. First, at those times, the inmates were allowed to keep only government-issued items. In parcels from rom his relatives, Chernyshevsky could receive only letters, books, writing papers and cigarettes. Personal visitations were always under control by jail warders: they took note of everything what happened and what was spoken about. There is not a single mentioning of the clock.
Second, Paul Buhre clock-making company started mass production of affordable clocks only as from 1874, when Paul Buhre bought a clock factory in Switzerland. Therefore, presumably, Pypin’s gift to Chernyshevsky dates back not to 1862, but to a later life period of theirs. After Chernyshevsky’s return from the exile, Alexander Nikolayevich Pypin extensively helped his relative and friend: sent him money, requested books, visited him in person and even took part in copying letters and documents of N.A. Dobrolubov to write a biography of the poet, critic and journalist.
Karl Buhre’s grandson, Pavel Pavlovich, joined the family business at the age of 26. Shortly, their small manufactory gained prominence: due to the fact that the company purchased a clock factory in the Swiss town of Le Lockle and started to manufacture vast variety of widely affordable clocks and watches.
Nowadays the Memorial Estate of N.G. Chernyshevsky safekeeps a Paul Buhre table clock with the power reserve of 8 days. The clock was handed over to the Museum by Alexander Vasilyevich Drobyshev. According to Drobyshev, that item was made by custom manufactured to order from Alexander Nikolayevich Pypin specially for Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky. Pypin presented his gift to his cousin allegedly after 7 July 1862, when the latter was arrested and incarcerated into the Alexeevsky Ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
However, the story by Drobyshev has historic inconsistency. First, at those times, the inmates were allowed to keep only government-issued items. In parcels from rom his relatives, Chernyshevsky could receive only letters, books, writing papers and cigarettes. Personal visitations were always under control by jail warders: they took note of everything what happened and what was spoken about. There is not a single mentioning of the clock.
Second, Paul Buhre clock-making company started mass production of affordable clocks only as from 1874, when Paul Buhre bought a clock factory in Switzerland. Therefore, presumably, Pypin’s gift to Chernyshevsky dates back not to 1862, but to a later life period of theirs. After Chernyshevsky’s return from the exile, Alexander Nikolayevich Pypin extensively helped his relative and friend: sent him money, requested books, visited him in person and even took part in copying letters and documents of N.A. Dobrolubov to write a biography of the poet, critic and journalist.
