The Collection of a Connoisseur 掌上的百年風華: 鐘錶及裝飾藝術收藏
The Collection of a Connoisseur 掌上的百年風華: 鐘錶及裝飾藝術收藏
'THE OFFERING' SWISS | A GOLD, ENAMEL AND PEARL-SET QUARTER REPEATING MUSICAL WATCH MADE FOR THE CHINESE MARKET CIRCA 1820
Auction Closed
July 14, 12:35 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
'THE OFFERING'
SWISS
A GOLD, ENAMEL AND PEARL-SET QUARTER REPEATING MUSICAL WATCH MADE FOR THE CHINESE MARKET
CIRCA 1820
gilded movement, cylinder escapement, plain three-arm balance, hanging barrels for going and music trains, the music played on a pinned barrel, the comb comprising 33 screwed tines, gilded cuvette with winding apertures and directionals for music and going trains, white enamel dial, Roman numerals, outer Arabic minute ring, gold case, the back with polychrome enamel painted scene depicting an offering, the border of red flinqué enamel, the bezels with blue guilloché enamel set with graduated split pearls, opaque light blue enamel band with repeated gold geometric pattern, case back with indistinct maker's mark, probably DB within a lozenge-shaped cartouche for Dupont & Bonnet
diameter 63mm
The enamel to the case back appears to be based upon a scene depicting 'The Offering to Minerva', however, although almost identical, the present watch replaces the statue of Minerva with a vase of roses. A very similar watch with matching decorative pearl border and almost identical scene but with the vase replaced by a statue of Minerva can be found at the L.A. Mayer Museum, Jerusalem. The latter watch is illustrated in George Daniels & Ohannes Markarian, Watches and Clocks in the Sir David Salomons Collection, Sotheby Publications, London, 1980, pp.140-142 & p.149, col. pl.82 and also in Ian White & Julia Clarke, The Majesty of the Chinese-Market Watch, AHS, 2019 pp.114-115. The scene depicted is also very similar to a panel by William Hopkins Craft on the so-called Masterpiece clock which White illustrates op. cit. p.297 (fig. 7.14c lower right) and which was sold at Sotheby's New York, 18 October 2006, lot 372.
For a note on Dupont & Bonnet, see lot 42.