The Sandberg Watch Collection

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Mar 31, 2001

LOT 236

The Bath of BathshebaLes Frères Huaut, circa 1685, movement bearing the signature George de la Courbine A Genève.Magnificent and extremely rare gold and enamel pre-balance spring, single-hand watch.

C. Two-body, 'bassine' with curved-in edges, the back painted with 'the Bath of Bathsheba', with part of David's palace visible in the background. It was from this palace that the King saw Bathsheba, and later seduced her, contrived her husband's death and married her. The enamel inside the back is a rural landscape with a house in the foreground and a man approaching it. The band with four cartouches depicting countryside landscapes.D. Gold, champlevé radial Roman chapters, the centre with a finely painted portrait of Diana with a greyhound. Gold 'tulip' hand. M. 35 mm o, hinged, gilt brass full plate, turned baluster pillars, fusee and gut-line, short, four-wheel train, verge escapement, plain two-arm steel circular foliot, elongated gilt cock, pierced and engraved with symmetrical foliage secured by a screw, worm and wheel set-up.Signed on the case 'Les Frères Huaud'.Diam. 40 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, pages 102-103.