French gold pocket watch with champlevé enamel decor Circa 1830

Fine gold and enamel cylinder watch by Berthoud Frères
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A decorative French gold cylinder watch with floral champlevé enamel decor, circa 1830-1838. Round shaped 18 Carat yellow gold and enamel case. Case back and bezel engraved and polychrome enamelled in champlevé with decoration en taille d’épargne of friezes and foliage. Silver guilloché engine turned eccentric dial with Roman radial hours, outer minutes track and gold Breguet hands. Key winding, gilded brass movement with going barrel, cylinder escapement, monometallic balance (probably in gold), and blued steel flat hairspring.
Cuvette signed.
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Diameter: 41.5 mm
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Signed: Berthoud Frères
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Berthoud Frères, French watch manufacturers
Berthoud Frères was the continuation of the company founded by Ferdinand Berthoud. In 1807, after Ferdinand’s death, his nephew Pierre Louis Berthoud took over the business, where he had worked for a long time. However, a few years later, in 1813, Louis Berthoud died unexpectedly. Since the children’s education was not yet complete, the widow took over the business and workshop in Argenteuil. She entrusted Jean François Henri Motel with the technical direction. Motel, who Louis trained with the help of the Ministry, had been in the workshop since 1806. From 1813 to 1817the production of his master was continued under the name “Veuve Berthoud” (Wittwe Berthoud).
In 1817 Motel became self-employed, and the family business continued production under the name “Berthoud Frères”. The two brothers shared the day-to-day management; the eldest, Louis Simon Henri Berthoud, became the trading company in Paris, located at rue Richelieu No. 103. (Show this location).
The youngest son, Charles Auguste Berthoud, was put in charge of the Argenteuil workshop. The clocks produced are entered in the clocks exhibited at the French Industrial Exhibition in Paris in 1819. At the exhibitions of 1823 and 1827, they were awarded a silver medal by the jury, 1834the company triumphed with a gold medal. However, in the same year, the brothers ended their collaboration. Louis Henri Simon, who called himself Louis like his father, only wanted to deal with the watch trade and said goodbye to chronometric. Charles Auguste continued the production of clocks under the name “Auguste Berthoud” until 1839. The French government appointed him head of the School of Precision Watchmaking, the first watchmaking school in Paris. The former director, Louis Frederick Perrelet, had to resign from this post for health reasons.
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Taille d’épargne, French for “sparing cut”.
A variation from champlevé decoration in which engraved lines in the metal base are filled with opaque enamel, without any variation in the depth of the lines, such as in base taille enamelling. It was often used in inexpensive mourning jewellery in the 18th century to decorate some bangles, chatelaines and watch cases.