Exceptional horologic works of art

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Oct 11, 2003

LOT 120

“Gris Trianon”. Piguet & Meylan, Geneva, No. 6377, enamel attributed to Jean-François Dupont, circa 1820, made for the Chinese market. Extremely fine and equally rare 18K gold and painted on enamel, graduated pearl-set center seconds quarter-repeating watch.

CHF 80,000 - 120,000

EUR 52,000 - 78,000

Sold: CHF 201,500

C. Four-body, “Empire”, the back exquisitely painted on enamel with a portrait of a fashionable Genevan lady on a gris trianon ground, broad frame of translucent emerald green enamel over wavy engine-turning, bezels set with fine graduated split pearls and red enamel simulating rubies on black enamel ground, band, pendant and bow decorated in champlevé enamel, gold hinged cuvette decorated with translucent imperial blue and azure champlevé enamel in floral and foliate pattern, spring-loaded front and back covers. D. White enamel, Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, outermost seconds divided into fourths. Blued steel “lozenge” hands. M. 47 mm, gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, fixed barrel, cylinder escapement, three-arm gold balance with flat balance spring, repeating on gongs by depressing the pendant.Punched with the makers' mark on the pillar plate under the dial.Diam. 57 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 - 6
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Notes

It appears that Piguet & Meylan made two series of watches with portraits of ladies, one depicting “The Four Seasons” (“La Montre Chinoise”, Alfred Chapuis and Gustave Loup, p. 72), and the other ladies in various modes of dress. The present watch belongs to this series. Another from the same series is in the Wilsdorf Rolex Collection (Pl. 41 in the book “Montres et Emaux de Genève”). Both series are clearly painted by the same artist. Furthermore, the lady on our watch greatly resembles the one in the “Spring” of the “Four Season” series. A similar portrait decorates the watch sold by Antiquorum on October 15, 2000, lot 427. Jean-François Victor Dupont (1785-1863). A highly reputed painter on enamel and porcelain. His work includes portraits of King George IV, Henry IV, H-B de Saussure, and others. He painted enamels for Ilbery, destined for the Oriental market. He is known for the beauty and elegance of his work, as well as for his distinctive palette, due to the fact that he mixed his own colors.The remarkable manner in which the figures in the foregrounds seem to advance, giving an impression of depth, is characteristic of his art.“Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois”, by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, Geneva, 1998.