Important Collectors Watches, Pocket ...

Hong Kong, Jun 08, 2008

LOT 108

Portrait of a Royal Lady Lepine A Paris. Made circa 1766. Very fine and very rare, gold and rose-cut diamond-set skeletonized pendant watch with a painted on enamel portrait of a Royal lady. To be sold without reserve

HKD 22,000 - 28,000

USD 3,000 - 3,600 / EUR 1,800 - 2,200

Sold: HKD 13,800

C. Two-body, ?Louis XV?, glazed on both sides, rose-cut diamond-set bezels, band engraved with a repeated pattern. D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals intersected by rose-cut diamond-set indexes, outer minute track with five-minute Arabic numerals. Gilt Louis XV hands. M. 33 mm, hinged, frosted and engraved gilt skeletonized plate with conical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement with micrometric potence adjustment, three-arm brass balance with blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, triangular single-footed solid engraved cock, rose-cut diamond-set silver filigree applied plate set with an oval painted on enamel portrait of a royal lady wearing a blue dress and red robe with ermine collar. Dial signed. Diam. 40 mm


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 4-59-01

Fair

HANDS Original

Notes

The enamel portrait possibly represents Princess Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy-Carignan, Princess de Lamballe, an Italian-French courtier, aristocrat of the House of Savoy, and royal confidante to Queen Marie-Antoinette. Her killing sparked a movement of anti-revolutionary propaganda, which ultimately led to the development and implementation of the Reign of Terror. An almost identical watch but without the enamel portrait is illustrated in "Jean-Antoine Lepine, horloger (1720- 1814)" by Adolphe Chapiro, Paris, 1988, p. 40.
Frederick-Louis Ducommun IIs recorded as working in Geneva in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
See: 'Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois', by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, Geneva, 1998.
Jean Antoine Lépine (1720-1814). Son of Jean, Jean-Antoine Lépine was born on 18 November 1720 at Challex, a small village a few kilometers north of Geneva. After having worked for some time at the establishment of Decrose, in the Grand Saconnex in the suburbs of Geneva, he arrived in Paris in 1744. A workman for André Charles Caron, "Horloger du Roi" and father of Beaumarchais, he married his employer?s daughter in 1756 and was received Master in 1765.
He was appointed "Horloger du Roi" (King?s Clockmaker) about 1765. In 1766 he succeeded Caron, and appears on the list of Paris clockmakers of that year as: Jean- Antoine Lépine, Hger du Roy, rue Saint Denis, Place Saint Eustache. In 1772, Lépine established himself in the Place Dauphine, in 1778- 1779, Quai de l?Horloge du Palais, then in the rue des Fossés Saint Germain l?Auxerrois near the Louvre in 1781, and finally at 12 Place des Victoires in 1789.