Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong,the Ritz Carlton Hotel,harbour Room, 3rd Floor, Nov 25, 2006

LOT 210

?Prosperity for the Journey? Ilbery, London, No. 6326. Made for the Chinese market, the case with London hallmarks for 1815. Extremely fine and rare, unusual, 18K gold, painted on enamel and pearl-set pocket watch with center seconds and duplex escapement. Property of a European Collector

HKD 550,000 - 700,000

USD 70,000 - 90,000 / EUR 55,000 - 70,000

Sold: HKD 1,861,000

C. Three-body, ?Empire?, the pendant and bow decorated with royal blue enamel and split-pearls, the band decorated with lozenges and flowerheads of royal blue, pale green and pale blue enamel, translucent red enamel border, the back cover decorated with a finely painted on enamel scene of a Cantonese harbor with Chinese junks on the water and mountains in the background, in the foreground a good luck ceremony is being performed with burning incense and a string of firecrackers, musicians and a group of gentlemen in seventeenth century Chinese dress performing the ceremony, split-pearl set border and bezel. Sprung gilt metal cuvette hinged to the movement ring.
D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute and seconds divisions, Arabic 15 second numerals. Gold ?heart? hands.
M. 50 mm., frosted gilt, Chinese caliber, foliate engraved standing barrel and cocks, duplex escapement, bimetallic compensation balance with blued steel weights, temperature adjustment screws, blued steel flat balance spring, diamond endstone, index regulator. Movement signed. Diam. 59.5 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2

Very good
Dial: 2-01

Very good

HANDS Original

Notes

The present watch is a very special type made for the Chinese market and depicting an actual Chinese scene. These scenes are particularly rare because watches for the Chinese market are usually decorated with with images taken from western art, often English engravings and scenes from mythology. The view decorating this watch shows a ceremony giving good luck to a ship on its journey, the harbour is probably Canton. The figures are dressed in 17th Century costume and it is therefore probable that the enameler took his design from a 17th century Chinese painting that had been brought to Europe. Four watches painted in a similar manner are in the Patek Philippe Museum, Geneva.