Important Collectors Wristwatches, Po...

Geneva, Nov 14, 2009

LOT 126

Virtue and Vice Swiss, No. 9823. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1810. Fine and rare, large, 18K gold, painted on enamel and pearl-set pocket watch with center-seconds.

C. Two-body, "Empire", the hinged and sprung bezel decorated with two concentric rows of split pearls, the back cover decorated with a painted on enamel scene of a young lady in a yellow dress holding a letter and a pink rose, while to the right an old man from behind a curtain offers her a bag of money to surrender her virtue, outer border decorated to match the bezel. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions. Blued steel poire hands. M. 47 mm., gilt brass, full plate, engraved with foliate decoration on the border, standing barrel, cylinder escapement, three-arm plain brass balance, flat balance spring, continental balance cock with polished steel endplate, index regulator with engraved scale on the backplate. Diam. 57 mm.