Centuries of Time: A Private Collection

Centuries of Time: A Private Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1365. A gold hunting cased 'demi-chronometre' lever watch made for the Ottoman market with polychrome enamel painted portrait of Sultan Abdulmejid I Circa 1850, no. 36629.

J. M. French

A gold hunting cased 'demi-chronometre' lever watch made for the Ottoman market with polychrome enamel painted portrait of Sultan Abdulmejid I Circa 1850, no. 36629

Auction Closed

May 14, 02:23 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 CHF

Lot Details

Description

J. M. French


A gold hunting cased 'demi-chronometre' lever watch made for the Ottoman market with polychrome enamel painted portrait of Sultan Abdulmejid I

Circa 1850, no. 36629


• Movement: unusual gilded skeletonised backplate with decorative scrolling bridge work, lever escapement, bi-metallic compensation balance, decoratively engraved balance cock, signed J. M. French, London

• Dial: white enamel dial, Turkish numerals, gold hands with blued fleur-de-lys tips

• Case: gold, the front centred with oval polychrome enamel painted portrait of Sultan Abdulmejid I (1823-1861), framed by scrolling translucent green and opaque white enamel, borders engraved with stylised foliage, green and red enamel floral motifs at the four quarters, the back centred with polychrome enamel painted scene of Istanbul, the frame and borders decorated en suite with the front, milled band, polished gold cuvette engraved demi-chronometre and with apertures for winding and hand-setting, case back and cuvette numbered 36629, cuvette further numbered 29


diameter 48mm

R. Chadwick, A Voyage Through Time, London: Unicorn, 2020, pp. 168-169.

Abdülmejid I (1823-1861) reigned as the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for more than 20 years between 1839 and 1861. He is regarded as a reformer who led his people on a path to modernization. He worked diligently with the diverse population under his rule, changing laws in an attempt to better integrate all citizens within Ottoman society. He fought off a growing nationalist fever that swept through the Empire's territories and forged bonds with the UK and France, fighting alongside these countries during the Crimean War.


For a similar watch numbered 36405, also depicting Sultan Abdulmejid, although decorated largely in monochromatic enamel, see Antiquorum New York, 15 April 2015, lot 137.