The Longitude at the Eve of the Third...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 23, 1999

LOT 369

Breguet à Paris, Swiss, circa 1815.Fine and unusual silver "Adam and Eve" automaton watch.

CHF 4,000 - 4,500

Sold: CHF 5,750

C. Double body, Empire, polished with ribbed band. D. Enamel small eccentric with Breguet numerals, the surrounding fully decorated with a fine painted scene featuring the Paradise with several animals. Glazed aperture above the dial with the serpent revolving around a small painted scene featuring Adam and Eve. Blued steel hands. M. Hinged gilt brass full plate with conical pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring, gilt brass continental cok with polished steel end-piece.Apocryphal signature on the back plate.Diam. 54 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good

Case: 4

Fair

Movement: * 4
Dial: 4 - 04

Notes

Adam and EveIn the account of the Creation, on the sixth day, God created Adam and Eve, together with the plants and the animals, Book of Genesis 1:24-31. According to Genesis 2:21-2, Eve was fashioned from one of Adam's ribs while he slept. Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden, or terrestrial paradise. God had warned Adam not to eat the fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" but the snake convinced Eve that she should try one of those fruit (usually represented as an apple or a fig) so tat she could become like a god with the knowledge of good and evil. Eve ate the fruit which she shared with Adam. "Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they discovered that they were naked; so they stitched fig-leaves together and made themselves loincloths", (from The Temptation, Gen. 3:1-7). Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, clothed in skins, having lost their immortality (see The Expulsion, Gen. 3:8-24); the snake too was punished to crawling and eating dust foreverEve was condemned to painful childbearing and to obey Adam; Adam's punishment was to work daily to support his family until death. They had two children, Cain and Abel."Adam and Eve" automaton watches are usually made with the scene depicting the Paradise painted on the enamel dial, Adam and Eve on a small panel over the visible balance, the serpent revolving on the border.