The present watch was previously sold in the Lord Sandberg sale, April 1, 2001, lot 267, and is published in the Sandberg book, page 346-347. We thank Mr. Arnaud Tellier, director of the Patek Philippe Museum, for the following historical and biographical information on Richter.
Jean-Louis Richter (1766-1841)
Apainter, he was active in Geneva's "Fabrique" from the 1780's to the 1830's. His work, often unsigned, is clearly recognizable. He was the son of Jean Jost Richter (d. 1792), an engraver and "bourgeois" of Frankfort on the Main, who became a habitant of Geneva on February 7, 1766. In 1778, at the age of 12, Richter began a six-year apprenticeship with the Roux brothers, who specialized in the decoration of watches and jewelery. In January 1793, "Rifter" (sic) is listed among the citizens of Geneva who are to elect the new National Assembly; he is described as a painter. In 1820, Richter was elected to the Conseil of the city of Geneva; he was elected again to that body in 1830. In addition to his painting on enamel, Richter also practiced another genre, imported from Berlin and Brunswick: painting on objects made of cardboard and of sheet-iron. In 1826, Richter is recorded in the Almanach des adresses du canton de Genève as working "en l'Isle, No 243". Around 1815 he became associated with Aimé-Julien Troll (1781-1852). In 1828 they are listed as executing paintings "on enamel and in oils, landscapes, portraits, flowers, and all types of jewelery, quai de l'Isle, 243". The association between Troll and Richter had been dissolved by 1840. Jean-Louis Richter died in Geneva on July 21, 1841, at the age of nearly 75. Dr. Hans Boeckh has shown that the work of Richter may be divided into three periods: in the earliest of them, the English influence is predominant, with subjects coming from the engravings of artists such as William Hamilton (1751-1801) and Peltro William Tomkins (1760-1840), although the influence of other artists can be perceived as well: contemporaries such as Johann Ludwig Aberli (1723-1786), Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), or painters from earlier times such as Guido Reni (1575-1642) and Eustache Lesueur (1616-1655). Richter's second period was dominated by Italian landscapes, real or imaginary, in the style of Claude-
Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). In his third period, Richter favored Siwss landscapes, often after the work of Pierre-Louis De la Rive.