Marly’s machine on the Seine

The Artwork

On the left, halfway across the sheet, next to the aqueduct, an inscription indicates the «Maison de Mr de Ville»: it is the house that Louis XIV gave to the man who had proposed this machine to him. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, with a handmade frame.

Arnold de Ville, from Liège, proposed bringing the water of the Seine to the top of the hill, for the king's gardens. The machine was built by a carpenter from the same land, Rennequin Sualem. On June 13, 1684, Louis XIV witnessed the test: fourteen 12-meter wheels moved more than 200 pumps and pushed the water over 150 meters higher. It ran day and night, with great noise, until 1817. De Ville's house in 1769 passed to Madame du Barry, a gift from Louis XV; Sualem, who made the machine run until his death, in 1708, had a tombstone in Bougival with the words «seul inventeur»: sole inventor.

The plate comes from the Atlas Curieux by Nicolas de Fer, who published it in 1716. At the top is the cross-section, the «Coupe de la Machine de Marly», with a legend from 1 to 15 for each part and the poles planted in the riverbed; to the right there are even the grates against ice. Below, the «Veue generale»: the hill with the reservoirs and the rows of balance beams that carried the movement all the way up; on the horizon, the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The copy we reproduce belongs to the David Rumsey Map Collection.

It fits well in an engineer's study and is a gift for those who love Versailles, or for those who, in front of a gear, stop to understand how it turns. Up there, next to the aqueduct, Monsieur de Ville's house keeps an eye on Sualem's wheels.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm
With frame: 31 x 44 cm
Material: artwork printed on the finest paper with handmade Amalfi deckle edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass