Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Du Rhône, Nov 12, 2006

LOT 56

?Pour Son Altesse Royale le Duc d?Angoulême? Breguet, No. 168, sold to the Duc d?Angoulême on March 27, 1838, for 1,800 Francs. Very fine and extremely rare, 18K gold and platinum "répétition à ponts", with quarter repeating and a short gold Breguet chain and ratchet key.

CHF 50,000 - 60,000

EUR 32,000 - 38,000 / USD 40,000 - 48,000

Sold: CHF 100,300

C. Four-body, "forme quatre baguettes", No. 498, by Joly (master mark), engine-turned. Dedicated gold cuvette secured by a screw, apertures for the winding and the regulator. D. Silver, engine-turned, brushed chapter ring with radial Roman numerals, outer minute chapter with dot indexes. Blued steel "Breguet" hands. M. 43 mm., 19''', gilt, standing barrel, jeweled steel cylinder escapement, plain brass three-arm balance with parachute on the top pivot, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator with bimetallic temperature compensation curb, all-or-nothing repeating with two hammers on two gongs activated by a pull-and-twist piston between 1 and 2 o?clock. Dial and cuvette signed. Diam. 49 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3-16

Good

Rusted

Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense

Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

A Breguet quarter-repeating watch with two hammers was more expensive than the more usual one-hammer type; it is specifically noted in the ledgers as ?répétition à ponts à 2 marteaux?. For a note on the use of platinum in watches and another Breguet platinum watch, No. 3537, see: Antiquorum, Genève, October 14 & 15, 2006, p. 54-57. The cuvette of this watch is inscribed: ?Donné a Mr le Bon. Albert de Pichon Longueville, Par Son Altesse Royale Monseigneur le Duc D?Angoulême, 1814?. Albert de Pichon Longueville, a fervent royalist, was among the delegation welcoming the duc d'Angoulème to Bordeaux. He was an active supporter of the Bourbon restoration. It is likely that the duc d'Angoulème had the date 1814 engraved on the watch in souvenir of Pichon-Longueville?s fidelity to the royal cause. The watch had several owners via the Breguet atelier; it first appears in ledger No. 1 as No. 4718 when sold on October 6, 1828 to Monsieur Odiot for 1,600 Francs. Then as No.168 in the new series ledger, it was bought back on January 22, 1835 from Monsieur Latrilhe for 800 Francs, and was re-sold to J.C. Cruger on November 13, 1835. Finally, on March 27, 1838, it was sold for 1,800 Francs to the Duc d?Angoulême, who presented it to Baron Albert de Pichon-Longueville. Louis Antoine de Bourbon, duc d'Angoulême (1775-1844), He as the eldest son of the comte d'Artois (later King Charles X of France) and Marie-Thérèse de Savoie. He was the last Dauphin of France. His maternal grandparents were Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and Maria Antonietta of Bourbon. She was the youngest daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elizabeth Farnese. He and his younger brother Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry, were educated in a chateau near Versailles. On the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 the two young princes followed their father into exile in Turin, Italy, then to Germany, and finally England. In 1792, d'Angoulême joined the emigre army of his cousin, the Prince de Condé. In June 1795 his uncle was proclaimed King Louis XVIII, and later that year Angoulême led a Royalist uprising in the Vendée, which ended in failure. In early 1797 he joined his brother and uncle in the German Duchy of Brunswick, hoping to join the Austrian Army. Obliged to flee by the defeat of Austria by France, they took refuge in Mitau, Courland under the protection of Tsar Paul I of Russia. There , in June 1799, he married his cousin Princess Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Madame Royale (1778-1851), the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who had been living at the Austrian court since her release from the Temple prison. They had no children. In April 1800, Angoulême commanded a regiment of cavalry in the Bavarian Army, taking part in the battle of Hohenlinden against the French. In early 1801 Tsar Peter made peace with Bonaparte, and the French court in exile fled to Warsaw, then controlled by Prussia. They returned to Russia when Alexander became Tsar, but in mid-1807 the treaty between Bonaparte and Alexander forced them to take refuge in England. Twice (in 1807 and 1813) Angoulême attempted to return to Russia to fight against Bonaparte, but was refused permission by the Tsar. He remained in England until 1814 when he sailed to Bordeaux, which had declared for the King. His entry of the town on March 12 , 1814 is regarded as the beginning of the Bourbon restoration. During the "Hundred Days", as chief of the royalist army in the southern Rhône River valley, Angoulême was unable to prevent Napoleon's return to Paris, and was again forced to flee until Bonaparte?s final defeat at Waterloo. After the second restoration of Louis XVIII, he served Louis loyally until the King's death in 1824, when Angoulême became Dauphin - the heir-apparent to the throne, under his father, now King Charles X. As Dauphin he supported his father?s policy of ridding France of her recent revolutionary and imperial past. In 1830, however, in the July Revolution, the people, angered by Charles? repressive policies, demanded his abdication, and that of his descendants, in favor of Louis-Philippe, and sent a delegation to the Tuileries Palace to ensure his compliance. When Charles abdicated on August 2, 1830, Louis-Antoine and his wife became King and Queen of France. It is said that the now King Louis XIX spent the next twenty minutes listening to the entreaties of his wife not to sign, while the former Charles X sat weeping. Eventually he too abdicated in favor of his nephew, making history as the shortest-ever reigning King of France. He left one last time for exile, where he was known as the "Comte de Marnes", and never returned to France again. Louis Antoine, duc d?Angoulême, died in Görz, Austria in 1844, aged 69. We wish to thank Madame Fabienne Durou of Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande and Mr. Christian Seely of the Château Pichon Longueville Baron, for the historical information they kindly provided.