Gérald Genta: Icon of Time

Gérald Genta: Icon of Time

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 5. Design of a Cartier Pasha with accompanying NFT  Circa 1982.

Gérald Genta

Design of a Cartier Pasha with accompanying NFT Circa 1982

Lot Closed

February 24, 12:05 PM GMT

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Lot Details

Description

Gérald Genta


Design of a Cartier Pasha with accompanying NFT

Circa 1982


Medium: watercolour on paper

Dimensions: 210 x 147 mm

Signed: yes


Brand: Cartier

Model: Pasha

Complication: minute repeating, perpetual calendar, skeletonized

Remark: N/A


Accompanied by: design in the form of a NFT, digital certificate in the form of a NFT and authentication certificate

This watercolour painting by Gérald Genta depicts a highly complicated version of the Pasha de Cartier, a model created by the great Genevan designer for the world-renowned French jeweller.


While officially introduced in 1985 with Genta's design, the origins of the model are traced back even further. Supposedly, the roots of the Pasha de Cartier go back to a timepiece ordered by the Pasha of Marrakech in the early 1930s, who wanted a watch that is water resistant and could keep up with an active lifestyle. As there is no proof that such a watch was ever produced or delivered, it is only the name of the model which truly links the two. However, there exists documentation from the early 1940s which depicts a Cartier watch bearing the desired features and looking similar to the modern Pasha de Cartier, hence, it is possible that Gérald Genta was inspired by this 1940s piece when designing the Cartier de Pasha that we know today.


Typical characteristics of the design include the sapphire cabochon crown guard with chain as well as the Vendôme lugs, both visible also on the present complicated and skeletonized version with minute repeater and perpetual calendar. Still in Cartier's collection today, the Cartier de Pasha has become an icon in its own right and the present painting from 1982 is witness to the creation thereof. in the purest Genta's spirit, the moon is in gold and the sky in lapis lazuli as, for Gérald Genta, only noble materials could be used to represent them.