Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, Nov 08, 2020

LOT 15

JEAN-GEORGES RÉMOND & CO.

CHF 18,000 - 24,000

HKD 144,000 - 192,000 / USD 18,000 - 24,000

TO BE SOLD WITHOUT RESERVE

Sold: CHF 23,750

Extremely fine and rare, snuff-box in the shape of a butterfly; 18K yellow gold and enamel.


Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good

Brand Jean-Georges Remond & Co., Geneva

Year Circa 1800-1807

Material 18K yellow gold and enamel

Dimensions 13.8 x 90.1 x 63.7 mm

Notes

18K yellow gold and enamel, snuff-box with hinged lid, in the shaped of a butterfly; cover polychrome enamelled imitating the colours of the lepidopteran insect, probably a peacock butterfly; band and base decorated with Royal blue flinqué enamel (translucent enamel over guilloché engine-turning) panels and black cham- plevé motifs. A similar snuff-box is illustrated in Snowman, A. Kenneth, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, Faber & Faber, 1966, black & white pl. before p. 113, ill. 749 (Collection Wartski, London).
Jean-Georges Rémond, Geneva
Jean-Georges Rémond (c.1746-c.1820) was active from 1783 to circa 1815-1820. Became Master goldsmith on December 22, 1783 and struck his first Master mark. Seven years later he appears to have formed a company: Georges Rémond & Cie, which eventually became, circa 1800, Rémond, Mercier, Lamy & Cie. During the French occupation of Switzerland by Napoléon, Jean-Georges Rémond recorded marks. In 1792, the partners Joseph Guidon, Jean-Georges Rémond, David Gide, Laurent Guisseling and Jean-Noël Lamy informally began working as Guidon, Rémond, Gide & Cie, (the company was officially registered on January 1, 1796). In 1809, the firm took on the name of Jean-Georges Rémond & Cie, and had offices both in Geneva and Hanau. The partners were Jean-Georges Rém- ond, Jean-Noël Lamy, Jean Boëhm (domiciled in Hanau), Denis Blondet, Laurent Guiseling, and Daniel Berton. In 1811, Jean-Georges Rémond, Jean-Noël Lamy, Laurent Guiseling, Pierre Mercier and Daniel Berton formed a company known as Rémond, Lamy, Mercier & Cie.
Bibliography (to understand the importance of Jean-Georges Rémond as a gold box-maker in Geneva)
• Chapuisat, Edouard, Le commerce et l’industrie à Genève pendant la domination française (1789-1813), d’aprés des documents inédits, Editions A. Julien, Georg & Cie, 1908, p. 489.
• Haydn, Williams, & Clarke, Julia (ed.), Enamels of the World, 1700-2000, The Khalili Collection, London, The Khalili Family Trust, 2009, pp. 292-317 (see also: http://www.khalilicollections.org).
• Clarke, Julia, “Swiss gold boxes: myth or reality?”, in Murdoch, Tessa, & Zech, Heike (ed.), Going for Gold: Craftsmanship and Collecting of Gold Boxes, Brighton, Sussex Academic Press, 2014, pp. 70-71.