Swiss gold and enamel open faced verge watch Circa 1700

Gold and enamel verge by Huaut Frères
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A fine and rare Swiss gold and enamel open faced key-wound verge pocket watch, circa 1700. Verge movement, chain fusée, engraved and pierced cock and foot, key-winding. Later white enamel dial with Roman hours and Arabic five-minute numerals. A painted polychrome enamel classical scene of angels and cherubs on the case back, the inside back cover with a pastoral scene of a gentleman walking amongst tall ruins and open country, the band with four painted on enamel pastoral vignettes interspersed with decorative yellow scrolls on a blue background. Case signed within a cartouche, movement signed Martineau London.
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Diameter: 40 mm
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Signed: les deux frères Huaut pintre de son A.E. de B.A. Berlin – Martineau London
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Les Frères Huaut (or Huaud). The cases painted on enamel by ‘Les deux Frères Huaut’ were among the finest examples of their kind from the Geneva School and were not only highly valued when originally made, but remained as art treasures in the centuries that followed. Pierre I was the founder of the Huaud dynasty. He was born in 1612 in Geneva as the son of a French goldsmith Jean Huaud. He settled in Geneva in 1630 and three of his 11 children became famous enamellists like their father: Pierre II (1647-1698), Jean-Pierre (1655-1723) and Ami (1657-1724). The brothers were most likely trained by their father and worked with him. Pierre II started his own business around 1680. Jean-Pierre and Ami became partners in 1682 and were appointed painters to the Prussian court in 1686 when they moved to Berlin and started working for Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg (1620-1688). Among their most well-known works are Diana and Actaeon, The Judgement of Paris, The Holy Family, St. John the Baptist, The Nativity and The Adoration of the Shepherds.