Important Watches, Collector's Wristw...

Noga Hilton, Geneva, Jun 14, 2003

LOT 231

The Tulip Henry Grendon at the Exchange, London, circa 1630. Very fine and very rare lady pendent silver gilt, pre balance spring, single-hand form watch designed as a tulip.

CHF 10,000 - 20,000

EUR 6,500 - 13,000 / USD 7,500 - 15,500

Sold: CHF 11,500

C. Two-body, cast, chiseled with three petals, one of which forms the front cover, tulip pendant, loose ring.D. Silver, hinged, oval, radial Roman hour chapter, inside and outside engraved with tulips and daisies. Single blued steel "tulip" hand. M. 22 x 26 mm., mounted to the dial, fusee and gut-line, short four-wheel train with five-leaf pinions, pre balance spring verge escapement with brass balance without a spring, small elongated andirregular gilt pinned cock, pierced and engraved with asymmetrical flower and foliate decoration, worm and wheel set-up.Signed on the movement.Dim. 42 x 25 mm.Published in the Sandberg book, pp. 364-365.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3 - 6
Movement: 4 - 22*
Dial: 3 - 01

Notes

The case is identical to the one in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in Guildhall, London, which houses a movement by William Clay. It is a good illustration of the fact that casemaking was an entirely independent craft from watchmaking. Henry Grendon Was admitted to the Clockmaker's Company in 1640. Some of his watches are preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Evans, in his "History of Jewelry", as quoted by Dr. Hans Boeckh, states: "Gesner saw the first tulip in flower in Augsburg in 1559 and published the first picture of it in 1561. It took 75 years for the flower to conquer Europe". In 1593, botanist Carolus Clusius brought tulips from Constantinople to the University of Leyden, using them for medicinal research and refusing to give away or sell any of them. One day bulbs were stolen from his garden and thus began the Dutch tulip trade. The upper lasses, first in Holland, then abroad, were fond of them and over the next 70 years tulips increased dramatically in popularity and price. In 1636, for instance, one Viceroy tulip cost the equivalent of ten tons of cheese. o wonder the tulip became a very popular decorative object!