The Sandberg Watch Collection

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Mar 31, 2001

LOT 279

Hilaire Bassereau, Palais Royal, No. 147, case by Jean Sanguinède, circa 1802.Exceptional and rare large 20 ct. gold repeating musical watch with six tunes and skeletonised movement.

CHF 40,000 - 60,000

USD 25,000 - 35,000

Sold: CHF 284,000

C. Four-body, 'Directoire', the back decorated with three concentric rings, the inner in champlevé enamel with a a gold urn surrounded by foliage on an azure ground, the next with polished palmettes against a matted gold ground, the outer of champlevé Imperial blue enamel decorated with foliage, the edge pierced and engraved, the bezels decorated 'en suite'. Spring-loaded gold cuvette, pierced and engraved with foliage. D. By Lucard, white enamel, gold Breguet numerals, outer gold minute divisios with heavier five-minute marks. Blued-steel Breguet hands. Secret signature below the '12'. M. 55.5 mm o, gilt brass full plate, entirely engraved, top plate pierced, a cutout for the nest of five bells, going barrel, cylinder escapement, plain gold five-arm balance, blued-steel balance spring, repeating on two bells, activated by a lever protruding through the band at 11 o'clock. The musical movement with a pinned cylinder with five hammers striking on five bells, playing six tunes, changingautomatically by depressing the pendant.Signed on the dial and movement, case stamped with the French hallmarks used between 1798 and 1809.Diam. 67 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, pages 192-193.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2*

Very good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 2 - 01

Notes

Bassereau, Jean-Hilaire (d. 1806)The watch exhibits features that unmistakably show that it was a special piece. The craftsmen chosen for making the different components of the watch were of the highest rank. Lucard, the dial maker, was one of the best. Breguet himself, along with Borel, used him as a maker for his dials. The casemaker, Jean Sanguinede, 39 rue St-Louis, then 18 Quai des Orfèvres, Paris, was one of the best case-makers. He was the main case-maker for Louis Berthoud at the beginning of his career. Then comes theecret signature, which appears to have been reserved by Bassereau only for his very best pieces. Finally, there are the unusual features of the movement: the repeater activation, by a sliding lever on the case, is a predecessor of the later slide activation, for at the time, as a rule, the repeater was activated by depressing the pendant. The suspension of the movement by three bars shows the lengths he went to in order to make the piece one-of-a kind, undoubtedly for an important client.Bassereau was an extraordinary maker, possibly a pupil of Lepine, as a number of his watches strikingly resemble Lepine's in the finish and in the details. He was a very versatile maker, on one hand he made luxurious pieces like the present lot, on the other he made well-done but simple watches, and then on occasion he proved that precision timekeeping was not foreign to him, such as a chronometer with pivoted detent escapement preserved in the British Museum.Sanguinède JeanMaster case-maker in 1777, became a Deputy from 1784 to 1789, was active in Rue Dauphine between 1778 and 1783 and Rue St Louis au Palais from 1789 to 1810.