Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Nov 16, 2008

LOT 439

?Pendule Au Nègre? Francois Goutier a Paris. Made circa 1800. Fine and rare, 8-day going, Directoire gilt and patinated bronze ?Pendule Au Nègre? with hour and half-hour striking.

C. Figure of a black man with patinated upper body and feet, gilt bronze trousers, the clock housed in a gilt-bronze bale with a fouled anchor and barrel to the side. Oblong base set with a chased gilt-bronze panel depicting cherubs loading barrels and bales onto a ship while another counts the money, one bale inscribed ?No. 38?, raised on barrel feet. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track. Gilt brass Directoire hands. M. 85 mm., circular brass plates, spring barrels for both trains, anchor escapement with silk suspension, countwheel striking the hours and half-hours on a bell. Dial signed. Dim. 38 x 31 x 11 cm.