Important Watches, Collector's Wristw...

The Ritz-carlton Hotel, Hong-kong, Jun 08, 2002

LOT 382

The Fishing PartyLouis Audemars, Brassus, No. 11463, enamel by F. Ser, circa 1885, made for the Chinese market.Very fine and extremely rare 18K gold and painted on enamel pearl-set hunting-cased keyless minute-repeating watch.

HKD 115,000 - 155,000

EUR 17,000 - 23,000 / USD 15,000 - 20,000

Sold: HKD 270,250

C. Four-body, "bassine et filets", front cover finely painted on enamel with a country scene depicting a water mill, a stream with a bridge and a young lady crossing it on a donkey, with cows, goat and a dog, a tree to the left which follows the curvature of the case, the back painted with a young man fishing in a stream, while his love reclines on a rock, mountains in the background, half pearl-set bezels, band in champlevé blue enamel with repeating gold pattern, gold hinged cuvette over goldezel glazed for viewing the movement. D. White enamel, radial Arabic numerals, outer minute divisions with five-minute Arabic figures, subsidiary sunk seconds. Gold "Louis XV" hands. M. 43 mm. (19'''), nickel bridge caliber, "fausses-côtes" decoration, 31 jewels, straight line calibrated lever escapement, the fork's free end finished with a typical Audemars "hook" terminal, cut bimetallic compensation balance, Breguet balance spring.Signed on dial and case, enamel signed by the painter on the back cover.Diam. 55mm


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3 - 6
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 13 - 01

Notes

It is very rare to find a watch by Louis Audemars for the Chinese market.Louis Benjamin AudemarsBorn in 1782 in La Vallée de Joux, he was apprenticed at 16 to Philippe Meylan. The fine workmanship of his watches established Audemars' reputation. Louis Audemars died in 1833 leaving 12 children. All eight of his sons continued in the Audemars firm, making finished movements, and around 1837 inventing the keyless winding/setting system today known as the Audemars system. They supplied movements with this kind of winding to companies such as Patek, Bautte and Jürgensen. Audemars watches show astrong Breguet influence. His catalogues list "Breguet" caliber watches, "Breguet style" repeaters with independent seconds, "demi Breguet" calibers. and Breguet antishock devices (pare-chutes). In 1848 Audemars stopped making ebauches and started producing complete watches. At the London exhibition of 1851 the company showed 10 watches with different escapements and complications, among which was a watch with "most intricate calculations of astronomical dial". The company became famous for ultr-complicated watches. In 1880 Audemars was named Watchmaker to the Queen of England. In 1885 the firm divided into three companies: Audemars Frères, Francois Audemars fils and Louis Audemars de Brassus. It should be noted that the Audemars Piguet company established in 1881 by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet, has only a remote connection with Louis Audemars; Jules-Louis was a great-grand-son of Louis' brother.