Fine Swiss gilt and enamel open faced verge watch Circa 1700
- Kenmerk
- TA2382
- Diameter
- 47 mm
- Estimate
- € 3.500 - 6.000
- Price sold
- € 3.850
Gilt metal verge pocket watch
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A fine Swiss gilt metal and enamel open faced verge pocket watch, circa 1700. The case back with a painted on enamel depiction of a nude reclining Danaë in the foreground and a servant in the background as golden rain falls from the sky, a polychrome enamel scene with ruins and a passing traveller in a landscape on the inside, the band engraved with four vignettes of town views intersected by foliate masks, the enamel attributed to Pierre II Huaud.
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Silver champlevé dial, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic five-minute numerals, steel beetle & poker hands. A hinged gilt movement, fusee and chain, divided Egyptian pillars, verge escapement, three-arm steel balance, large single-footed winged cock pierced and engraved with the Royal Arms of Queen Anne of England, diamond endstone, silver regulation dial. Movement signed.
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Diameter: 47 mm
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Signed: Flournoy Genève
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The case has some transformations.
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The arms engraved on the balance cock of this watch are those of Queen Anne of England (1701-1714), this decoration was probably to celebrate her accession in 1701. The enamel panel is taken from a slightly earlier watch, circa 1690, and a fine example of Geneva enamelling of this period.
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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Frères Huaut’ were among the finest examples of their kind from the Geneva School and were not only highly valued when originally made, but remained as art treasures in the centuries that followed.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.
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Danaë and Jupiter. When Acrisius, king of Argos, learned from an oracle that his grandson would dethrone him, he had his only daughter Danaë imprisoned in a tower. Jupiter transformed himself into a shower of gold and impregnated Danaë, who gave birth to Perseus. Acrisius refused to believe in divine intervention and locked the mother and the child in a chest which he cast into the sea. Danaë and Perseus are often considered to be the Greek counterpart of the immaculate conception.
Signed: Flournoy Genève



