Very few watches with this type of enamel have survived. The most important examples are in the Louvre (inv. OA 8303), Walters' Museum in Baltimore (inv. 58.148, formerly in the Demidoff Collection), and the Patek Philippe Museum.Around the beginning of the 17th Century, the flower was elevated to a status of beauty worthy of being painted. This period also witnessed the growth of florilegium, a collection of flower plants, usually printed on copperplates, as opposed to earlier woodcut prints. More than anything they were intended as design sources. In 1611, J.T. de Bry began his work Icones Plantarum, which focused on garden plants. "Still life" paintings of flowers were soon quite common. It appears that the artist whopainted the present watch drew inspiration from Florilegium by Emanuel Sweerts, which was first printed in 1612.The mastery of painting on enamel reached in France in the Seventeenth Century was lost before the turn of the century. Owners treasured old cases, however the movements had become obsolete after the introduction of the balance spring in 1675. As a result, many Blois watch cases were fitted with "modern" movements or converted into snuff boxes. Many backs and covers were preserved for their beauty alone. There is a record in Ferdinand Berthoud's registers of a client who requested that an old enmel watch be fitted with a newer movement. The fact that Berthoud obliged the man demonstrates to what extent people treasured their fathers' enameled cases. A beautiful example can be found in the Sandberg Watch Collection (Antiquorum, March 31, 2001,Lot No. 8), where an early Blois enameled case is fitted with a custom made movement by William Webster. Some watchmakers, like Johanes van Ceulen Le Jeune of Hague, made a business of replacing movements in older, painted enamel cases.