French 20k gold and silver repeating cylinder watch Circa 1826

Two tone quarter repeating watch by Breguet
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A very fine and rare French two tone 20 carat gold and silver open faced répétition d’or moyenne à ponts à 2 marteaux quarter repeating cylinder pocket watch, circa 1826. Sold to Monsieur Barnewall on November 18, 1826 for 1,600 francs, bought back on September 20, 1834 for 1,000 francs and re-sold to Baron Delmare on April 27, 1835, for 1,800 francs. Gilt brass movement, overhanging ruby cylinder escapement, plain three armed balance with parachute on the top pivot, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator with bimetallic temperature compensation curb, jeweled escapement, repeating on two gongs with two hammers activated by pull-and-twist piston at 2 o’clock on the band. Gold hinged cuvette. White enamel dial with Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, eccentric subsidiary seconds at 5 o’clock and original blued steel Breguet hands. Case with Tavernier‘s master mark, engine turned silver band, polished back. Dial and cuvette signed.
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Diameter: 48 mm
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Signed: Breguet Horloger de la Marine Royal
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This piece is recorded in the archives as having a silver dial (‘cadran argent Tavernier’), the present white enamel dial would have been fitted in the Breguet workshop probably between the time the watch was bought back from Barnewall and was re-sold to Baron Delmare. It has not been possible to trace a ‘Baron Delmare’, however in the archives the spelling in of the names of Breguet’s clients, particularly the English names, is rather hit-and-miss, and ‘Baron Delmare’ is quite likely to be Thomas Cholmondeley, 1st Baron Delamere 1767-1855.
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Baron Delamere was the son of Thomas Cholmondeley (pronounced ‘Chumley’), Member of Parliament for Cheshire, and Dorothy Cowper. He was elected to the House of Commons for his father’s old seat of Cheshire in 1796, which he retained until 1812, and also served as High Sheriff of Cheshire. In 1821 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Delamere, of Vale Royal in the County of Chester. Lord Delamere married Henrietta Elizabeth Williams-Wynn, daughter of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet, and Charlotte, daughter of Prime Minister George Grenville, in 1810. He died in October 1855, aged 88, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Hugh Cholmondeley.