Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong, Jul 10, 2005

LOT 125

?Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne? André pinxit, 1716, movement by Pieter Klock, Amsterdam, circa 1725. Fine and very rare gilt metal and enamelled copper watch with date.

HKD 50,000 - 65,000

EUR 5,000 - 7,000 / USD 6,500 - 8,500

Sold: HKD 109,250

C. Two-body, 'bassine', the back very finely painted depictingAriadne and a cherub, The band painted with continuous lakesidescenes, the enamel inside the case with a lake, a folly, anda traveller, painted en camaieu de rose after an engraving byGabriel Perelle (1603-1677). D. Silver, champlevé, with Romanchapters and half-hour indications, outer minute ring with fiveminuteArabic numerals. Blued-steel 'beetle and poker' hands.M. 41 mm, hinged gilt brass full plate with elaborate pierced andengraved pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, plain brassthree-arm counterpoise balance, two-footed cock pierced andengraved with inhabited foliage, rack and pinion regulator.Signed on the dial and the back plate.Diam. 48 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3 - 8 - 18
Movement: 4 - 5 - 8 - 29
Dial: 4 - 6 - 04

Notes

Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete. She was seduced by Theseus when he came to fight the Minotaur, and helped him to escape from the labyrinth by giving him a ball of string which he gradually unwound and followed to find his way back out. Ariadne left Crete with Theseus, but was abandoned by him at Naxos. The lonely Ariadne was discovered by Bacchus, who threw her crown into the skies, forming a new constellation, and then married her amid lavish celebrations. The most famous depiction of the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne is the fresco on the ceiling of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, painted by Annibale Carracci. Pieter Klock (1665-1754). A famous Amsterdam maker, was also a paintings dealer. His name is found on Dutch scheepjesmechaniek (automaton seascape) clocks. He made a table clock with a seconds hand. He must have been well respected by his peers, as in 1716, he was asked by the City fathers to compile a list of the best watchmakers in Amsterdam. André Jean (1646-1717) a goldsmith and painter on enamel who specialised in the decoration of watch cases. He served his apprenticeship in 1661 with Pierre Huaud I, François Legare and Pierre Royaume, associated goldsmiths, and became Master in 1675. He himself had several apprentices, among them François Diodati in 1680 and François Lombard from 1687 to 1692. In 1704 André requested permission to open a school for drawing with his son David. There is a watch signed 'Jean André pinxit 1687' in the Louvre (inv. OA 1002) ?Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois?, Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, Geneva, 1998. The present watch was previously sold in the Lord Sandberg sale, March 31, 2001, lot 19, and is published in the Lord Sandberg book, pages 128-129