The Sandberg Watch Collection

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Mar 31, 2001

LOT 234

The Little PreacherMathieu Le Jne à Paris No. 893, circa 1770.Very fine and rare 18 ct. gold and enamel watch with matching chatelaine, key and seal.

C. Two-body, 'Louis XV', back repoussé, centred by a painted enamel scene after 'The Little Preacher' by Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) showing a mother and her three children, one standing on a desk in a 'preaching' pose, the other falling on the floor, the mother ready to pick him up. The front bezel repoussé with scrolls, border engraved in a geometrical pattern.The chatelaine with two enamel panels, the larger top one showing a mother, her two children and a cat, the lower panel with a small girl sitting on a log, also after Fragonard's The Little Preacher, the links with enamelled posies of flowers, the key and seal with further paintings of children at play. D. White enamel, bosselé, radial Roman chapters, outer minute divisions. Gold 'Louis XV' hands. M. 35 mm o, hinged, gilt brass full plate, cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement,lain brass three-arm balance with flat spring, continental cock pierced and engraved with scrolls, rack and pinion regulator with silver plate.Signed on the movement.Diam. 43 mm, length with the chatelaine 170 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, pages 156-157.