Centuries of Time: A Private Collection

Centuries of Time: A Private Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1383. A rare double dialled gold and enamel verge watch with processional automaton Circa 1820, no. 6412.

Bouvier Frères

A rare double dialled gold and enamel verge watch with processional automaton Circa 1820, no. 6412

VAT applies to hammer price and buyer's premium

Auction Closed

May 14, 02:23 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 CHF

Lot Details

Description

Bouvier Frères


A rare double dialled gold and enamel verge watch with processional automaton

Circa 1820, no. 6412


• Movement: gilded full plate, verge escapement, fusee and chain 

• Dial: white enamel, Arabic numerals, outer minute ring, dial above for regulation, aperture for winding, signed Bouvier Frères

• Case: gold and enamel with restoration, scooped bezels, the case back with wedge-form aperture for processional automaton depicting figures from the Commedia dell' Arte, the figures rotating against a landscape scene painted on bone and completing one revolution each minute, aperture surrounded by champlevé enamel decoration depicting a garden scene with urns and trees, a quiver to the centre, all in tones of opaque light blue, white and translucent red enamel, pendant numbered 6412


diameter 50.5mm



R. Chadwick, A Voyage Through Time, London: Unicorn, 2020, p. 226-227. 
Bouvier Frères specialised in the production of musical and automata watches. For further watches with processional automata by Bouvier Frères, see: E. Jaquet, A. Chapuis, Technique & History of the Swiss Watch, 1970, plate 96 and Sotheby's Geneva, 12 November 2020, lot 547. A further Bouvier automaton watch with similarly decorated surround to the aperture (with the background blue tones reversed) was offered at Antiquorum Hong Kong, The van Cauwenbergh Collection, 29 May 1989, lot 523.