Exceptional Horological Sale Celebrat...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Apr 24, 2004

LOT 540

Apollo Pursuing Daphne Patron & Cie, Geneva, circa 1750. Very fine 18K gold and painted on enamel quarter-repeating à toc watch with à tact option.

CHF 6,000 - 8,000

EUR 3,800 - 5,000 / USD 4,700 - 6,000

Sold: CHF 8,625

C. Two-body, Louis XV, the back very finelypainted on enamel, depicting Apollo pursuingDaphne while her father, the river god Peneus,changes her into a laurel tree, gold asymmetricalrocailles at the border, bezels decorated with enamelflowers, pin at 8 o?clock for à tact option.D. White enamel,radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions with five-minuteArabic markers, winding aperture at 2 o?clock. Gold "Louis XV" hands.M. 36 mm., hinged, frosted gilt full-plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, steel ba-lancewith flat balance spring, continental cock, repeating on blocks in the case by depressing the pendant.Signed on the movement.Diam. 45 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3 - 56
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 24 - 01

Notes

A similar watch by Patron, also decorated with enamel, is in the Louvre Museum (inv. OA 8470). Daphne and Apollo Daphne was Apollo?s first love. Apollo saw Cupid playing with his bow and arrows, and teased him. Cupid drew two arrows from his quiver, a golden one to excite love, and a leaden one, to repel it. With the leaden shaft he struck the nymph Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus, and with the golden one he shot Apollo through the heart. Immediately the god fell in love with the maiden, while she despised him. When Apollo pursued Daphne, she fled. Seeing that she was about to be overtaken by the god, Daphne implored her father: "Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger!" Peneus heard his daughter and granted her request: her arms became branches, her bosom grew over with tender bark; her hair became leaves. Apollo stood amazed. Kissing the branches, he said: "Eternal youth is mine, and now you also shall be always green, and your leaf know no decay". The nymph, now changed into a laurel tree, bowed her head in acknowledgment. (From Ovid?s "Metamorphoses")