Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...
Geneva, May 08, 2010
LOT 498
Bautte & Ce. Montre à Tact with Chronometer Escapement and Sidereal Time Chart made for an Important Polish Nobleman ? Meleniewski. Jn. Fs. Bautte & Ce A Geneve, No. 72428. Made circa 1850. Very fine and extremely rare and important, 18K yellow gold and painted on enamel montre à tact pocket watch with pivoted detent chronometer escapement, sidereal time chart and special dial. Accompanied by a fitted box.
CHF 25,000 - 35,000
USD 23,000 - 33,000 / EUR 17,000 - 25,000
Sold: CHF 30,000
C. Four-body, forme quatre baguettes, engine-turned with polished borders, coin-edge band with gold pins for the à tact, front cover with finely painted coat of arms of the Kopacz Meleniewski family on a royal blue ground, the back cover with foliate engraved à tact hand and painted on enamel initials "UM" beneath a painted on enamel Polish Noble Crown. Hinged gold cuvette engraved with a sidereal time chart for each month with dates and hours, minutes and seconds. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track with gothic letters at each five-minutes spelling the name "U. Meleniewski", subsidiary seconds. Blued steel spade hands. M. 38 mm., 17???, matte gilt bar caliber, 12 jewels, pivoted detent escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, Breguet balance spring, index regulator. Cuvette signed. Diam. 45.5 mm.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: |
|
Case: 3 |
Good |
Movement: 2* |
Very good Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense |
Dial: 2-01 |
Very good HANDS Original |
Notes
The Meleniewski family Originally from Podolia in the southwest of the Ukraine, conquered in 1793 by the Russian Empire, is an illustrious noble Polish family, on a par with the Poniatowskis, Radziwills and the Wisniowieckis
Stanislas Kopacz de Meleniewski (1846-1908) was a commander of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem and the Sovereign Order of Malta. He was an officer in the Russian Imperial Army and a deputy in the Assembly of the Nobility of Kiev. He was decorated with the pontifical order of Saint Gregory.
In 1876 he married Countess Ernestine Rzewuska (1848- 1908), also from a noble Polish family, and the niece of Mme Hanska, the second wife of Honoré de Balzac.
They acquired a home in Hyères in the south of France in 1869, where they spent a great deal of time; many members of the family are buried in the chapel of the former Hôtel-dieu in Hyères, which was given to the city by Count Darius Poniatowski, an uncle of Ernestine.
Sidereal time. Unit of time used by astronomers; the sidereal day is the interval between two consecutive upper transits of the vernal point in the plane of the meridian. Since in practice this can be measured as the earth's rotation with respect to distant celestial objects, it is called sidereal or star time (sider means star in Latin). The sidereal day is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 41 seconds. The sidereal year contains one more day than the solar year.