The Sandberg Watch Collection

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Mar 31, 2001

LOT 51

The CherubUnsigned, Geneva, circa 1810.Very fine and amusing 18 ct. gold and enamel, pearl-set form watch with concealed dial, designed as a winged cherub with centre seconds and matching brooch.

CHF 20,000 - 25,000

USD 12,000 - 15,000

Sold: CHF 23,000

C. Three-body, 'fermée' type, both covers hinged and spring-loaded, the double-sided cherub can be suspended from the brooch either way round. The front opens to reveal the dial, the back to reveal the movement. The cherubs' heads are painted on enamel, the front one with blond hair, the back one with dark hair, their wings are of engraved gold with blue champlevé enamel and set with graduated half pearls. The bow in the shape of a love knot decorated with matching enamel and half pearls. D. Whie enamel, Breguet numerals, outer minute divisions, and quarter second divisions with 15 second index markers. Gold 'spade' hands. M. 21.7 mm o, gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, plain three-arm brass balance, double-footed cock engraved with foliage, rack and pinion regulator with a silver plate, set and wound from the back, centre seconds run from the third wheel.Dim. Length with brooch 59 mm, width 49 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, page 422-423.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3 - 8
Movement: 3 - 5 - 6*
Dial: 2 - 01

Notes

The movement is quite different from typical form watch movements due to the centre-seconds indication, and it is wound and set from the back. The second wheel is off-centre, allowing for a larger mainspring, the cock is of an unusual form, and the fusee does not have a typical stop lever but employs Maltese cross stopwork set on the back plate.This watch is the quintessence of Genevan form watches from the turn of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. In fact, an almost identical watch from the Musée de l'horlogerie et de l'émaillerie in Geneva has been chosen innumerable times, along with one similar to lot No. 382, to represent Geneva's montres de fantaisie in different exhibitions, catalogues, and books.