Exceptionally large French form watch in shell shape Circa 1820

Brass gilt pocket watch with verge escapement
–
An exceptionally large form watch in shell shape made by Breguet in Paris, France, circa 1820. This full hunter cased watch is crafted in shell shape from brass gilt. The exceptional two colour white enamel dial with applied silver figural decorations has Arabic hour numerals and iron hands. The movement has a verge escapement.
The movement is signed.
–
Dimensions: 60 x 73 mm
–
Signed: Breguet à Paris                
–
The watch comes with a very unusual watch key made of ivory and lapis lazuli.
–
Lapis lazuli
lapis lazuli, semiprecious stone valued for its deep blue colour. The source of the pigment ultramarine), it is not a mineral but a rock coloured by lazurite (see sodalite). In addition to the sodalite minerals in lapis lazuli, small amounts of white calcite and of pyrite crystals are usually present. Diopside, amphibole, feldspar, mica, apatite, titanite (sphene), and zircon may also occur.
Because lapis is a rock of varying composition, its physical properties are variable. It usually occurs in crystalline limestones and is a product of contact metamorphism. The most important sources are the mines in Badakhshan, northeastern Afghanistan, and those near Ovalle, Chile, where it is usually pale rather than deep blue. Much of the material that is sold as lapis is an artificially coloured jasper from Germany that shows colourless specks of clear, crystallized quartz and never the goldlike flecks of pyrite that are characteristic of lapis lazuli and have been compared with stars in the sky.
The Sumerians believed that the spirit of their gods lived within the stone, while the ancient Egyptians saw it as a symbol of the night sky. Since the earliest of times, lapis lazuli has been associated with royalty, strength and courage, wisdom and intellect, friendship and truth.