Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, Nov 08, 2014

LOT 978

PATEK PHILIPPE PINK GOLD MINUTE REPEATER & CHRONOGRAPH WITH FINE ART NOUVEAU ENAMELED CASE BY A.H. RODANET OF PARIS PRESENTED BY EDMOND ROSTAND, THE WRITER OF CYRANO DE BERGERAC TO THE COMEDIC ACTOR JEAN COQUELIN Patek Philppe, Genève, No. 48381. Made in 1880, sold on July 16, 1881, the case decoration made by A.H. Rodanet to the special order of Edmond Rostand, circa 1910. Extremely fine and historically important, large, minute-repeating, 18K pink gold hunting cased keyless pocket watch with chronograph and Art Nouveau champlevé enamel decoration. Accompanied by a Rodanet fitted box, the Extract from the Archives, a period photograph of Jean Coquelin, a Théatre de la Porte Saint-Martin program of January 1910 for "Chantecler", a 4-act piece by Edmond Rostand and a copy of Le Petit Journal for January 30th, 1910 illustrating scenes from "Chantecler".

CHF 20,000 - 40,000

HKD 172,000 - 348,000 / USD 21,000 - 43,000

Sold: CHF 56,250

Four-body, "bassine et filets", polished, the front cover decorated in relief with a translucent and champlevé enamel cockerel with the rising sun in iridescent champlevé enamel behind, the back cover decorated with a translucent and opalescent champlevé enamel Art-Nouveau scene of a moonlit bay, push-button between 4 and 5 for start/stop and return-to-zero chronograph functions. Hinged gold cuvette. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, outermost chronograph track divided into fifths and with red Arabic five-second numerals, subsidiary seconds with red Arabic numerals. Blued steel spade hands. 19```, nickel plated, fausses côtes decoration, 25 jewels, counterpoised and calibrated straight line lever escapement, cut-bimetallic compensation balance with gold adjustment screws, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band. Case and movement numbered, cuvette signed by Rodanet.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2-31

Very good

Transformations
Movement: 2*

Very good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 2-8-01

Very good

Slightly scratched

HANDS Original

Notes

DIAM. 53 mm. The present watch belonged to the famous French writer and poet Edmond Rostand who achieved international acclaim for his play of the life of Cyrano de Bergerac of 1897. In 1908, Rostand wrote a four-act work entitled "Chantecler" which opened on the 7th February 1910 at the Théatre de la Porte Saint-Martin. From contemporary illustrated literature the actors in the play wore realistic animal costumes including a farmyard act called "Le Matin du Coq". One of the actors in the play, the comedian Jean Coquelin, was also a director of the theater and it is likely that to show his pleasure with the performances and perhaps as a play on Coquelin's name, Edmond Rostand decided to present Coquelin with his Patek Philippe watch. It must have been at great expense that Rostand commissioned the prestigious firm of A.H. Rodanet to enhance the covers of the watch with fine enamels in the then contemporary Art-Nouveau style. The front cover is magnificently decorated with a realistically modeled cockerel and the reverse with a sublime moonlit shoreline landscape. The completed watch resulted in a beautiful Art-Nouveau work of art. The firm of A.H. Rodanet were well placed to carry out this work as both jewelers of high repute and agents for the watches of Patek Philippe in Paris.