George Michael Moser

• gold repoussé scene depicting Apollo and the Four Seasons, the back now fitted with a brooch pin • case back with maker’s mark SG for Stephen Goujon, repoussé scene signed G M Moser f

Terence Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1970, p. 199, pl. 111 

This exceptional repoussé case back is in excellent condition and typifies Moser’s mastery of this artistic medium. The five figures depicted to the back are wonderfully modelled and, despite their number, do not crowd the panel. The scene is Apollo and the Four Seasons and is a subject that Moser appears to have returned to on a number of occasions. Richard Edgcumbe, in The Art of the Gold Chaser, notes a further gold repoussé case, two enamel cases and a design drawing for an enamel watch all by Moser and depicting this scene (see op. cit. pp. 114 & 123). Edgcumbe notes that the figure of Apollo appears to be after the frontispiece for the Tombeau de Charles Sackville, comte de Dorset, engraved by Michel Guillaume Aubert after an  illustration by Boucher, published in 1741. George Michael Moser, born in January, 1706 in Switzerland, was one of the most prominent chasers of his day.  He worked for his father, also a chaser, until he moved to London in 1726, where he worked for a coppersmith and then a cabinet maker.  His skill was such that he became drawing-master to King George III and designed the great seal for him. Throughout his career, Moser worked mainly with Thomas Mudge, George Graham, William Webster, and John Ellicott.  He specialized in figural renderings and often used classical sources for his scenes, such as Apollo and the Four Seasons and the Judgement of Paris.  He was widely known and respected in the artistic field, was one of the original founders of the Royal Academy along with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and was elected Keeper of the Academy by King George III in 1768.  Moser died in January of 1783, and was honoured by Sir Joshua Reynolds in his obituary as “the father of the present race of artists” See, Edgecumbe, The Art of the Gold Chaser, 2000, pp. 85-90.