Exceptional Horological Sale Celebrat...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Apr 24, 2004

LOT 265

Attributed to Godemars frères, probably retailed by Ilbery, Geneva, No. 9624, circa 1820. Very fine 18K gold and painted on enamel watch made for the Chinese market.

CHF 20,000 - 30,000

EUR 12,600 - 19,000 / USD 15,600 - 23,500

Sold: CHF 37,950

C. Two-body, "Lépine", spring-loaded back very finely painted on enamel depicting two children in a rose garden; the boy in a protective posture, the girl with a bird and a sheep at her feet, champlevé enamel bezels, pendant, and bow, spring-loaded gilt cuvette hinged to the movement ring.D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions with fifteen-minute Arabic markers, subsidiary seconds. Blued steel "serpentine" hands.M. 48 mm, Lepine calibre, standing barrel, cylinder escapement, three-arm brass balance with flat balance spring.Diam. 58 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 - 40
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Notes

This is an excellent example of a watch made for the Chinese market with a Lépine type movement with subsidiary seconds, and a very sweet scene painted on the back. Godemars frères (1793-1824) Made repeating watches and musical and automaton watches. They signed a quarter repeating watch with an escapement by Pouzait; the latter worked with them from approximately 1780 to 1800. Dictionnaire des horlogers genevois, by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, 1998. William Ilbery Active in London from 1780 in Goswell Street, he specialized in the production of luxury watches for the Chinese market. He set a new standard for all watches made for the Asian market, organizing the production of profusely engraved movements in Switzerland, mainly in Fleurier. He was followed in this by makers such as Bovet and Juvet who also worked in Fleurier (Val de Travers). Bovet and Juvet organized the mass production of silver-cased watches and later, once their Canton manufactures were opened, they assembled these directly in China. Ilbery can therefor be considered the "father" of "Chinese" watches, as they are known today.