An unusual gold and silver watch chain

Lateltin & Payen, Paris, circa 1850



the oxidised silver chain, en style troubadour, cast with groups of battling crusaders and infidels between martial trophies and gold laurel leaf clusters and sprigs

Lateltin & Payen first entered a mark for: la bijouterie from 2 place Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs on 16 April 1846 and a doublé mark from the same address on 29 November 1850. Both marks were biffés on 26 February 1852 and on the same day Alexis Payen and Eugène Soibinet entered a mark for: la fantaisie again from the same address until 10 December 1855. The same mark appears on a silver and gold watch chain, the links formed as twigs and leaves with horsemen and hounds pursuing a stag, in the Hull Grundy Collection at the British Museum (The Art of the Jeweller, 1984, no. 786). Although evidently supplied by Lateltin & Payen, the chain is described as one of a group of hunting fob-chains designed by Nevillé for Morel & Duponchel. Vever illustrates another chain in the group (La Bijouterie Française au XIXe Siècle, 1908-12, I, p.276) and it would seem probable that the current style troubadour chain is also from a Nevillé (Niviller) design. Although little is known about Nevillé, he is said also to have worked for Morel in London from 1848 to 1852, accompanying Prosper to Constantinople to deliver zarfs and gold boxes in 1850.