Important Modern and Vintage Timepieces.

Geneva, Nov 13, 2010

LOT 91

Feeding The Ducks Geneva, No. 1333, case No. 2221. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1820. Very fine, 18K gold and painted on enamel, pearl-set pocket watch.

CHF 15,000 - 20,000

USD 15,000 - 20,000 / EUR 11,000 - 15,000

Sold: CHF 20,000

c. Four-body, ?Empire?, spring-loaded back with finely painted on enamel scene of two children, a girl feeding ducks and a boy holding an eager dog in a woodland landscape, pearl-set bezels, the band pearl-set with translucent red enamel over engine-turning. Hinged gilt cuvette. d. Matted gold, engine-turned centre, champlevé radial Roman chapter ring, outer minute dot divisions. Gold serpentine hands. m. 35.3 mm., gilt brass full plate, circular pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring, two-footed cock pierced and engraved, rack and pinion regulator with silver plate. Diam. 44 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3-24-75

Good

Slightly chipped

ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Slightly restored soft enamel
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

The present watch is illustrated in the book of the watch collection of Lord Sandberg, pages 328-329 and was previously sold by Antiquorum, Geneva, on April 1, 2001, lot 371. This watch is also illustrated in the article "The Influence of Art on Watch Case Design" by Richard Chadwick in the Antiquorum Vox Magazine, Summer 2006, p. 122. A strong tradition of charming rustic scenes painted on enamel was established in Geneva during the first quarter of the 19th century. The export of watches to China and the east required not only mechanical ingenuity but superb decorative appeal. What particularly appealed to these markets were images of children involved in charming rural pursuits. Artists in England such as George Moreland and Francis Wheatley painted scenes of idealized rural English life and were copied via engravings by the Geneva enamel painters.