Question: What nationality was the man in whose shops Henri Maillardet spent a period of time?

Pierre Jaquet-Droz (] ; 1721–1790) was a Swiss-born watchmaker of the late eighteenth century.  He lived in Paris, London, and Geneva, where he designed and built animated dolls, or automata, to help his firm sell watches and mechanical birds. <SEP> Amélie van Assche (born 1804 - ?)  was a Belgian painter.  She was born in 1804, and was the daughter of Henri Jean van Assche.  Her sister, Isabelle Catherine van Assche, a landscape painter, was a pupil of her uncle, Henri Van Assche.  Her first teachers were Miss F. Lagarenine and D'Antissier.  She later went to Paris, where she spent some time as a pupil of Millet.  At the opening of the 19th century, the "Art of the Miniature" was cultivated—as expressed at the time—by Hortense van Baerlen, Marie-Josèphe Dargent, and Assche.  She made her debut at Ghent in 1820, and in Brussels in 1821, with watercolors and pastels, and some of her miniatures figured in the various exhibitions at Brussels between 1830 and 1848, and in Ghent between 1835 and 1838.  Her portraits, which are, thought to be very good likenesses, are also admirable in color, drawing, and modelling; and her portrait of Leopold I., which she painted in 1839, won for her the appointment at court.  She was a portrait painter and court painter to Queen Louise Marie of Belgium. <SEP> The Early Closing Association was formed in the United Kingdom in 1842 or 1843 to control the hours of labour in retail shops, and to abolish Sunday trading.  It was promoted by Samuel Carter Hall, George Dawson and John Passmore Edwards, among others.  Half-day early Closing was not finally won until 1912.  It was opposed by Asquith's Liberal Government until a bill could be passed due to Trade Union pressure.  The first socialist woman to enter parliament Margaret Bondfield, later a Labour MP, was an early advocate of early closing when a mass meeting was held in Trafalgar Square.  But it would be another decade of 72 hour working days before the week could be cut to 60 hours.  Another radical supporter was disgraced Liberal MP Sir Charles Dilke, whose involvement with Mrs Crawford damaged his reputation and chances of becoming Prime Minister.  Had he become Gladstone's natural successor early closing might have happened in 1890.  Dilke's bill to close shops at 8 pm which failed to pass was bitterly opposed by both Lords and Commons during 1903.  Home Secretary Winston Churchill was very anti-trade union regularly opposing any legislation to assist the improvements they so desired.  Other famous supporters included H.G. Wells, the author who had spent a miserable two years behind the counter.  The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle warmly approved of the Early Closing Association.  Church leaders and friendly societies also backed a change in the law.  Without statutory control exploitative proprietors could keep shops open until midnight at the weekend. <SEP> Henri Maillardet (1745–1830, born Jean Henri Nicholas Maillardet), was a Swiss mechanician of the 18th century who worked in London producing clocks and other mechanisms.  He spent a period of time in the shops of Pierre Jaquet-Droz, who was in the business of producing watches, clocks, and automata.