Important Watches, Wristwatches and C...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Apr 18, 1998

LOT 47

Duvivier 1'Aine a Rouen, circa 1765. "Suzanne et les Vieillards" Fine and unusual 18K three coloured gold watch.

CHF 3,500 - 4,000

C. Double body, Louis XV, the bezel chased with a formal decoration, the back with a very fine and unusual scene, chased in three colours of gold, featuring "Susanna and the Elders " . D. White enamel with Roman numerals and outer Arabic minutes ring. Gold Louis XV hands. M. Hinged gilt-brass full plate with square baluster pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring, gilt-brass continental Louis XV cock with polished-steel end-piece. Signed on the back plate. Diam. 45 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: A

Good

Case: 7

Oxidized

Movement: *2

Very good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense

Dial: 26-53

Upgraded

Reprinted

Notes

Varicoloured gold watches made on the continent during the second half of the 18th century, are usually decorated with symbols of Love and Fidelity or with ornamental military, musical or gardening trophies; few are chased with flowers or engraved in a basket work pattern. As opposed to the repousse watches produced in England at the same period, they are almost never decorated with scenes inspired from the Bible or Mythology. Francois Duvivier, Rouen, was working rue des Charettes from 1745 and later rue Grand Pont, from 1759 to 1764; he used to sign: Duvivier 1'Aine a Rouen. Susanna was a fictional heroine whose innocent virtue triumphed in the end over villainy. She was the wife of a prosperous Jew and was secretly desired by two elders of the community. As she was accustomed to go into her garden to bathe, the elders plotted to seduce her and hid themselves to wait for her. The two old men sprang out on the naked unsuspecting girl and threatened that unless she gave herself to them both, they would swear publicety that they had seen her in the act of adultery with a young man. Susanna spurned them and cried for help. The old men, thwarted, carried out their threat and Susanna was hauled before a court on the false charge, found guilty and condemned to death. At the eleventh hour, the young Daniel came forward and cross-examined the elders. By the device of separating them from each other, he elicited conflicting evidence, thus proving Susanna's innocence.