Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces...

Hong Kong, Jun 13, 2023

LOT 90

JORG GRAY
JEWELLERY CASKET FITTED WITH A WATCH, MADE FOR THE CHINESE MARKET

HKD 380,000 - 480,000

EUR 44,800 - 57,000 / CHF 43,600 - 56,000 / USD 48,600 - 62,000

Yellow gold and galuchat (shagreen), key-winding watch-box, in the shape of a rectangular casket with hinged lid, with repoussé floral and rocaille pattern; the watch mounted on the lid with ruby-set bezel; made for the Chinese market The interior of the box is sheathed with Chinese silk whose motif represents imperial dragons.


Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent

Case: 3-9

Good

Scratched

Movement: 3**

Good

Repair required, at buyer's expense

Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Brand Jorg Gray

Year circa 1755

Movement No. 622

Case No. 4249366

Material yellow gold and galuchat

Caliber 15’’’ gilded brass, with fusee and chain, verge escapement, monometallic balance and blued steel flat hairspring, single-footed cock

Dimensions 105 x 139 x 110 mm.

Signature movement

Accessories winding key

Notes

Very few of these caskets are known. A gilded mounted agate traveller’s nécessaire de voyage, fitted inside with a watch, a compass and a spy-glass, signed by James Cox, is kept in the Palace Museum of the Forbidden City. Galuchat (or Galluchat) Jean-Claude Galluchat (1689-1774), Parisian gainier (casket-maker) master from Lyon, and his son Denis-Claude Galluchat develop in Paris, in the 1740’s, a technique of treatment of the skins of dogfish and shark; skins which are then used in the manufacture of objects called tabletterie (caskets and boxes of all forms for many uses). One of their most famous clients is none other than the Marquise de Pompadour - Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (1721-1764), Duchess of Menars, a lady of the French bourgeoisie who became the favourite of Louis XV (1710-1774), King of France an.varre (1715-1774) - «qui ne passait pas une semaine sans qu’elle n’achetât un petit objet qui était souvent du galuchat» (who did not spend a week without buying a small object that was often shagreen). This artisan made so much reference to his time by dressing this skin of fish - the shagreen - with the rarest objects that the proper name became synonymous with the material. Towards 1748, in front of the success of their works, the father and the son install their workshops rue des Morfondus, then, in 1774, Quai de l’Horloge, near the main founders and manufacturers of scientific instruments, watchmakers and jewellers. At the same time, their technique is taken up by various workshops in the major capitals of Europe, including, of course, London, where there is an intense production of objects often destined for export.