Important Watches, Pocket Watches and...

Noga Hilton Hotel, Nov 13, 2005

LOT 239

?The Tulip Bud? Z(acharie) Fonnereau a la Rochelle. Made circa 1640. Very fine and very rare, gilt brass and rock crystal tulip-form pre-balance spring pendant watch with single hand and the original shagreen covered brass and silver mounted outer protecting case.

CHF 70,000 - 90,000

EUR 45,000 - 60,000 / USD 55,000 - 70,000

C. Four-body, matted, the lower section decorated with three cast and chased single flowers, three hinged oval rock crystal covers with stylized leaf engraved bezels, stalk pendant. Outer cover: two-body, brass with silver bezels, overlaid with shagreen and with silver pin-work decoration, silver hinge. D. Silver, oval, polished chapter ring with radial Roman numerals, fleur-de-lys half-hour markers, inner dot hour markers, the center and outer borders engraved with flowers and foliage. Single brass ?fleur-de-lys? hand, the center engraved with a flower. M. 30 x 20 mm., oval, gilt brass, tall ring-turned baluster pillars, fusee and gut line, short three-wheel train, verge escapement, steel two-arm balance without balance spring, small pierced foliate balance cock with irregular foot fastened by a screw, blued steel worm and wheel set-up with pierced foliate feet. Movement signed. Dim. 40 x 30 mm. excluding the pendant.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3-5*

Good

Poor

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-5-01

Good

Poor

HANDS Original

Notes

Zacharie Fonnereau Originally from Geneva, he traveled to Lyon in 1618, became a ?Compagnon? in 1622, and was working in La Rochelle, France, by 1641. There he became a Master. Fonnereau died shortly afterward. He is known to have signed a cruciform watch ?Fonnereau à La Rochelle?. Another watch by Fonnereau was sold by Antiquorum, Geneva, October 15, 2005, Lot 122. ?Dictionnaire des horlogers genevois? by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, 1998.