Important Watches
Important Watches
A PEARL-SET GOLD AND ENAMEL SNUFF BOX, RÉMOND, LAMY & CO., GENEVA, 1801-1804
This lot has been withdrawn
Lot Details
Description
A PEARL-SET GOLD AND ENAMEL SNUFF BOX, RÉMOND, LAMY & CO., GENEVA, 1801-1804
rectangular with cut corners, the lid applied with a chased gold tympanum and pillars around a rectangular pearl-framed enamel miniature painted with Father Time paddling a boat containing the allegorical figures of the Four Seasons, the base of the tympanum centred with a chased classical portrait within symmetric architectural foliage, patterned translucent blue enamel base and sides within black and gold borders, maker's mark only
9.6cm., 3¾in. wide
The Sir David Salomons Collection, cat. no. 176
Vera Bryce Salomons
L.A. Mayer Memorial Institute, Jerusalem, inventory no. BO 16-70
George Daniels & Ohannes Markarian, Watches and Clocks in the Sir David Salomons Collection, 1980, no. 176, p.293
The short-lived informal partnership of Rémond, Lamy & Co. was formed following the dissolution of the Geneva company of Guidon, Rémond, Gide & Co. on 1 January 1801. That company had been registered in 1792 to last for ten years and the termination was followed by a division of the partners who, on the same day, opened on the one hand, Rémond, Lamy & Co. and on the other, Guidon, Gide & Blondet fils, thus dividing the original partners between those of Geneva origin and those who had come from Hanau. We do not know why the successful partnership was not renewed but is evident that the split was not an easy one as their client J.F. Leschot wrote to David Duval, a London entrepreneur, on 2 February 1801 to apologise for the delay in sending him the two promised 'temples' to be sent to China, giving the excuse that ‘these wretched bijoutiers set me back by 6 weeks claiming that the liquidation of their company was causing them big problems and has delayed the prompt execution of my pieces even though not a day goes by without my chasing them vigorously’. (Bibliothèque publique et universitaire, Geneva, ms. suppl. 964, f. 166).
Although the partnership of Rémond, Lamy & Co. only lasted three years, a remarkable number of boxes with their mark survive showing that despite production having been very high, the quality and innovative nature of the boxes was extraordinary with no two identical.