Masterworks of Time: Splendours for the East 「時間傑作：西器東傳」

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 558. A RARE AND LARGE GOLD AND ENAMEL TWO-TRAIN DOUBLE DIALLED AND DOUBLE AUTOMATA QUARTER REPEATING WATCH WITH JACQUEMARTS, VISIBLE BALANCE AND AUTOMATA SCENE CIRCA 1800 [ 瑞士製罕見大型黃金畫琺瑯雙錶盤二問活動人偶懷錶，備雙傳動鏈系統及透視擺輪，年份約1800].

Swiss

A RARE AND LARGE GOLD AND ENAMEL TWO-TRAIN DOUBLE DIALLED AND DOUBLE AUTOMATA QUARTER REPEATING WATCH WITH JACQUEMARTS, VISIBLE BALANCE AND AUTOMATA SCENE CIRCA 1800 [ 瑞士製罕見大型黃金畫琺瑯雙錶盤二問活動人偶懷錶，備雙傳動鏈系統及透視擺輪，年份約1800]

VAT applies to hammer price and buyer's premium

Lot Closed

November 12, 03:59 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 40,000 CHF

Lot Details

Description

Swiss

A RARE AND LARGE GOLD AND ENAMEL TWO-TRAIN DOUBLE DIALLED AND DOUBLE AUTOMATA QUARTER REPEATING WATCH WITH JACQUEMARTS, VISIBLE BALANCE AND AUTOMATA SCENE

CIRCA 1800

[ 瑞士製罕見大型黃金畫琺瑯雙錶盤二問活動人偶懷錶，備雙傳動鏈系統及透視擺輪，年份約1800]

• Movement: full plate, two-train, cylinder escapement, plain cylindrical pillars, repeating on a bell mounted through the front dial

• Dials: front - with blue enamel ground, small white subsidiary dial for time, two vari-colour gold jacquemarts each with automaton arm holding a polished steel hammer striking a bell mounted beneath a polychrome enamel painted plaque depicting a pair of newly weds in a landscape, inset white date dial • back dial with polychrome enamel painted village scene, a windmill in the background, applied vari-colour gold decoration to the foreground, the automata consisting of turning paste-set sails of the windmill and wheel of a watermill whilst a fisherman raises and lowers his rod and a donkey drinks from a moving stream of water formed from a glass rod, aperture for visible balance against a polished steel disc, inset blued steel dial for regulation

• Case: pink gold, the front bezel with pierced sides and decoratively engraved with flowers and foliage

diameter 66mm

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Sir David Salomons
Christie's Geneva, 13 November 1985, lot 198

A. Chapuis & E. Gélis, Les Mondes des Automates, Paris, 1928, p. 61,63 & fig. 342

Commonly, Jacquemarts figures mounted to watches merely imitate the striking of a bell. Unusually the vari-colour gold figures of a gentleman and a lady mounted to the front dial of this watch hold polished steel hammers which actually strike and sound a bell which is mounted beneath the polychrome enamel painted plaque. The painted plaque itself depicts a newly wedded couple and the striking Jacquemarts appear to celebrate the scene. It is rare to find watches of this type incorporating a double automata, in this instance, the back of the watch incorporates a separate automata scene which depicts a fisherman raising and lowering his rod whilst the wheel of a watermill and sails of a windmill turn, to the right hand side of the scene a donkey appears to drink from a moving stream.