Important Watches Collector's Wristwa...

The Ritz-carlton Hotel, Feb 20, 2005

LOT 228

Jaquet Droz, London, circa 1785. Extremely fine and rare gold and enamel, pearl set quarter striking clock-watch with center seconds.

HKD 600,000 - 800,000

EUR 60,000 - 80,000 / USD 80,000 - 100,000

Sold: HKD 747,500

C. Three-body, hinged bezel set with pearls and decorated withdark blue and white enamel semi-circles, hinged back with pearlset and enamel border decorated to match the bezel, finelypainted with a scene of a young couple dresssed as a shepherdand shepherdess in an arcadian landscape, dark blue translu-centground with cream enamel and multi-coloured paillion bor-der.D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer secondsring, Arabic quarter markers. Fine pierced gold hands.M. 36 mm., frosted gilt full-plate with cylindrical pillars,standing barrels, cylinder escapement,continental style cock foliate-pierced to formthe name "Droz", plain brass three-arm balance,striking with two hammers on a bell.Signed on the movement.Diam. 52 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 01

Notes

This watch is illustrated in ?Orologi della collezione Ruscitti? as no. 35, and was sold by Antiquorum on October 14, 2001, lot 602. Pierre Jaquet Droz and Henry-Louis Jaquet Droz B B orn on July 28, 1721 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Pierre Jaquet Droz was the son of a farmer who was an occasional clockmaker as well. He studied humanities and philosophy in Basel from 1738 to 1739 and then became interested in horology. We know little of him as a person, only that he was sober, serious, taciturn, and very careful in his work. On October 25, 1750, Pierre Jaquet Droz married Marianne Sandoz, the daughter of Civil Lieutenant Abraham Louis Sandoz, who was later to accompany Pierre on his trip to Spain. At the age of thirty-four Pierre Jaquet Droz was left a widower. He never remarried, and seems to have devoted himself to his work as a watchmaker with all the more intensity. In 1758, Jaquet Droz made the long and difficult journey to Spain, to present his works to King Ferdinand VI. When he returned, the sum he brought back enabled him to devote himself to the making of the famous Jaquet Droz automata, the writer, draughtsman, and musician, and to found the successful Jaquet Droz firm, in London and Geneva, for the making of extraordinary mechanical and musical pieces. The second child of Pierre Jaquet Droz and his wife Marianne, Henri-Louis, was born on October 13, 1752. Recognizing that he was a gifted child, his father sent him to Nancy to study music, science, mathematics, physics and drawing. Upon his return from Nancy in 1769, Henri-Louis took his place in his father's workshop, side by side with Jean-Frédéric Leschot (1746-1824), an adoptive son. It was the beginning of a close and fruitful partnership between the three men. Pierre Jaquet Droz was the first to make singing bird boxes and enjoyed an excellent reputation for compli-cated clocks, Neuchâtel clocks and automaton timepieces. When Pierre Jaquet Droz grew old, the firm was taken over by his son Henri and Jean Frédéric Leschot, who changed the name to Jaquet Droz & Leschot. Pierre Jaquet Droz died in Biel in 1790.