Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong Kong, Jun 27, 2015

LOT 72

EDOUARD JUVET TITUS AND BERENICE GOLD Edouard Juvet, "Titus & Berenice", Fleurier. Made for the Chinese market, No. 69, circa 1860. Fine and rare, center-seconds, gold, champlevé and painted on enamel pocket watch with duplex escapement.

HKD 250,000 - 340,000

USD 32,000 - 44,000 / CHF 30,000 - 41,000

Sold: HKD 550,000

Two-body, Empire, the bezel decorated with translucent red enamel and white enamel flower heads with blue centers, intersected by blue rui heads, pendant and bow decorated with blue and white champlevé enamel, the back with a painted on enamel panel depicting Titus and Berenice in a garden by an altar and urn garlanded with roses, translucent red guilloche enamel ground, the border decorated to match the bezel. Hinged gold cuvette with engraved decoration. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute and seconds divisions and Arabic 15-minute numerals. Gilt ovoid hands. Gilded brass, engraved with flowers and foliage, standing barrel, five-arm polished steel balance, jewelled duplex escapement, flat balance spring, index regulator. Movement signed.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2-9

Very good

Scratched

Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense

Dial: 3-71-09

Good

ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Hairlines

HANDS Damaged

Notes

DIAM. 56 mm. TITUS AND BERENICE TITUS, the elder son of Emperor Vespasian, was born in AD 39. From AD 61 to 63 he served in Germany and Britain as military tribune. He then returned to Rome and married Arrecina Tertulla, the daughter of a former commander of the Praetorian guard. A year later Arrecina died and TitusmarriedMarcia Furnilla. She was from a distinguished family which had connections to opponents of Nero. After the failure of the Pisonian conspiracy, Titus thought it best not to be connected in any way with any potential plotters and hence divorced Marcia in AD 65. The same year Titus was appointed quaestor, and became commander one of his father's three legions in Judea in AD 67 (XV Legion 'Apollinaris'). A serious threat to Titus' succession was his affair with the Jewish princess Berenice, ten years his senior, beautiful and with powerful connections in Rome. She was the daughter (or sister) of the Jewish king, Herod Agrippa II, and Titus called her to Rome in AD 75. As he had divorced his second wife Marcia Furnilla in AD 65, Titus was free to remarry. And for a while Berenice lived openly with Titus in the palace. But the pressure of public opinion, mixed with anti-Semitism and xenophobia, forced them apart. There was even talk of her being a "new Cleopatra". Rome was not prepared to tolerate an eastern woman close to power and so Berenice had to return home. The scene depicted on the present watch shows Berenice parting from Titus. EDOUARD & LÉO JUVET One of the important Swiss horological families working for the Chinese market. EDOUARD JUVET (1820-1883) was first established in Buttes in 1842, but in 1844 moved his workshop to Fleurier. He began making "Chinese" watches in 1856. Edouard's sons Ami-Louis and Léo traveled to China to work in the family firm. When Ami-Louis died there, LÉO JUVET (1848-1891) took his place. In Shanghai, the Juvets were rivaled only by the Bovets, yet the two families maintained friendly relations. The Maison Juvet prospered, opening branches in Tien-Tsin and Saigon, to the extent that in 1872 Léo wrote : "Our watches sell like salt". In 1873, Edouard Juvet registered a trademark in Chinese characters, which was often used on the company's products. He granted his son Léo power of attorney in November 1875, and after his death in February 1883, Léo succeeded him at the head of the firm. A very similar watch, one of a pair was part of the Lord Sandberg Collection. See: Antiquorum, The SANDBERG WATCH COLLECTION, March 31, 2001, lot 361. Another was sold by Antiquorum, Hong Kong, April 23, 2006, lot 425.