The Sandberg Watch Collection

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Mar 31, 2001

LOT 235

Hercules between Virtue and VicePierre Combret à Lyon, circa 1620.Exceptional and very rare, silver and gilt metal, single-hand oval alarm watch with a concealed dial.

CHF 40,000 - 50,000

USD 24,000 - 30,000

Sold: CHF 52,900

C. Two-body, 'fermée' type, silver hinged, oval, the front cover with a magnificent chased and 'taille douce' engraving of Hercules at the crossroads, choosing between Virtue and Vice, after an engraving by Etienne Delaune (1518-1595), the silver back with King David on the throne and Nathan before him, gilt brass band pierced and engraved with flower and leaf decoration, small finials, chiselled pendant, loose ring. D. Oval plate, silver with applied gilt metal radial Roman chapters chapter rin, inner revolving alarm disc with Arabic numerals, a small square opening at 12 indicating the hour, engraved outside the chapter ring with a reclining nymph at the top and another nymph and faun below, the sides engraved with fine foliage and flowers. Blued-steel 'poker' hand to set the alarm. M. 34 x 42 mm, oval, gilt brass full plate, vase pillars, fusee and gut line, short four-wheel train, verge escapement, two-arm brass circular foliot, elongated small pinned cock pierced and engraved withflowers, wheel and click set-up cock and alarm stop-work cock similarly decorated, alarm from a fixed engraved barrel with two-wheel train with large brass pinion on the second wheel, striking on an oval bell.Signed on the back plate.Dim. 76 x 46 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, pages 44-45.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 - 6
Movement: 3 - 6*
Dial: 3 - 6 - 04

Notes

It is rare to find a watch from the beginning of the seventeenth century in such excellent condition.Pierre Combret II à Lyon (1581-1622)The son of Pierre, he was born in Egleton. He made oval, octagonal, and cruciform watches and also produced fine pendant watches designed as shellfish or tulips.Huaud Frères, Jean Pierre et AmiThe best known and most prolific enamel painters of their day, they came from a family of goldsmiths in Châtellerault, France. Pierre Huaut I (1612 -1682) finished his apprenticeship as a goldsmith, and possibly as an enamel painter, in 1630. His three sons became enamel painters also. Pierre II (1647 - c.1698) was apprenticed to his father. In 1685/6 he went to Berlin, probably along with his younger brothers, but unlike his brothers, after a brief return home, he went back to Berlin in 1689. I1691 he was appointed painter to the Brandenburg Elector Frederick III, for whom he worked until 1696 when he appears to have returned to Geneva.Jean-Pierre (1655 - 1723), also apprenticed to his father, was associated from 1682 with his younger brother Ami (or Amicus) (1657 - 1729), as Les Frères Huaud. They also worked for Frederick III. In 1686 their signature was 'Les deux frères Huaut Les Jeunes'; after 1686 'Les Frères Huaud' or 'Les deux frères Huaud' with the addition of 'peintres de son A.E. à Berlin' and 'p.d. V. A. fct à Berlin'. After their return to Geneva in 1700, their signature appeared as 'Les frères Huaut', 'Les deux frres Huaut' or 'Peter et Amicus Huaut'; they also signed 'Fratres Huault'. The name is spelt Huaud, Huaut and sometimes Huault.Among their best known subjects are: Diana and Actaeon, The Judgement of Paris, The Holy Family, St. John the Baptist, The Nativity, and The Adoration of the Shepherds.Bibliography: Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, Geneva, 1998.