Centuries of Time: A Private Collection
Centuries of Time: A Private Collection
Bovet, Fleurier
A very fine and rare gold and enamel centre seconds duplex watch made for the Chinese market, the case polychrome enamel painted with a mandarin duck Circa 1835, no. 807
Auction Closed
May 14, 02:23 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 CHF
Lot Details
Description
Bovet, Fleurier
A very fine and rare gold and enamel centre seconds duplex watch made for the Chinese market, the case polychrome enamel painted with a mandarin duck
Circa 1835, no. 807
• Movement: blued steel 'Chinese' calibre with duplex escapement and standing barrel, bi-metallic compensation balance with blued steel capped wedge shaped timing weights, ruby endstone, signed Bovet, Fleurier, gold cuvette with aperture for winding and hand-setting and decorative border engraved with flowers and foliage, interior of cuvette numbered 807
• Dial: white enamel, Roman numerals, outer ring for minutes/seconds, blued steel hands, centre seconds
• Case: gold, the back polychrome enamel painted with a Mandarin duck perched on a rocky outcrop within a landscape scene, rocky mountains in the distance, scene bordered by champlevé enamel in opaque green, turquoise and translucent red, heightened by graduated split pearls, the bezel similarly decorated, pendant and bow with enamel and pearls, pusher through pendant for releasing case back
diameter 58.5mm
In traditional Chinese culture, the mandarin duck is symbolic of lifelong love and fidelity, emanating from the belief that mandarin ducks pair with one another for life. Only a very small number of watches are known with enamel painted panels featuring a mandarin duck, all of which differ slightly from one another. Another example of the subject can be found in the private collection of the House of Bovet.
A similar watch, numbered 663, also with blued steel movement and a case back scene featuring a mandarin duck on a rocky outcrop, with similarly rocky (but snowy) mountainous backdrop, can be found at the Patek Philippe Museum (inv. S-989). The latter watch is illustrated in P. Friess, The Emergence of the Portable Watch, Patek Philippe Museum, vol. III, 2005, pp. 488-489.