The Sandberg Watch Collection

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Mar 31, 2001

LOT 7

The WatermillUnsigned, English, circa 1785.Very fine and rare gilt metal double-face, two-train, hour striking and repeating musical automaton coach watch, playing two tunes, with centre-seconds, made for the Chinese market.

CHF 16,000 - 20,000

USD 9,500 - 12,000

Sold: CHF 20,700

C. Three-body, 'Consular', glazed on both sides, the bezels with concealed hinges, pierced and engraved with foliage, flowers, and harps, and set with alternating pearl and blue paste stones. The back with a painted on metal animated rural scene with a family followed by a horse and cart, while other people pass over a bridge under which there is a turning waterwheel. D. White enamel with eccentric Roman chapter set at the top, at the bottom, the pierced and engraved balance cock with regulatinghand, the outer centre-seconds indication with Arabic numerals. On the left a paste-set rosette for tune change, on the right an identical rosette for strike/silent. Gold 'beetle and poker' hands. M. 75 mm o, gilt brass full plate with column pillars, two-train, reversed power fusee and chain, cylinder escapement, plain steel three-arm balance, brass escape wheel, atypical cock pierced and engraved with foliage, visible through an aperture in the dial, and semi-circular regulator scale at the botom.Musical movement: Reversed power fusee and chain, five-wheel train, pinned cylinder playing two tunes on five bells with five hammers. The music and the automaton activated by pressing the button in the pendant.Diam. 95 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, page 256-257.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 4 - 5 - 6 - 22
Movement: 4 - 5 - 6*
Dial: 13 - 01

Notes

It is unusual to find a fusee-driven musical mechanism in such a watch.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.