Unusual large french gold enamel musical watch Circa 1790

Large gold and enamel musical center seconds watch playing three tunes
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An unusual and large french gold and enamel musical center seconds watch playing three tunes with pivoted detent escapement and jump seconds, made for the Chinese market, circa 1790, skeletonized gilt brass full plate movement, pivoted detent escapement, plain four arm balance, openwork top plate engraved overall with leafage and scrolls, pinned barrel music work with a choice of three tunes playing on a nest of four bells with five hammers, the bells visible through a cut out in the top plate, pendant activated music, gold cuvette centred by a pierced and engraved vase issuing champlevé enamel flowers, the cuvette further enamelled in blue with directions for winding and setting.

White enamel dial, Roman numerals, centre seconds, the case back centred by a medallion painted in the foreground with a polychrome enamel vase of flowers against a polychrome enamel pastoral landscape framed by translucent purple enamel over a guilloché ground, the bezels and band pierced and engraved with geometric champlevé enamel motif, movement signed Hilaire Basseareau, Palais Royal, accompanied by a copy of the book Stanley H. Burton, The Watch Collection of Stanley H. Burton, Warts and All.
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Diameter: 65 mm
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Signed: Bassereau
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Jean-Hilaire Bassereau, a Parisian watchmaker, appears to be an obscure but superb maker who carried the warrants Horlogère l’Empereur et Roy and made watches for the Chinese and Turkish markets. The reference in the Sandberg catalogue notes that Bassereau was a versatile maker executing pieces of the highest quality such as the present lot to simple watches.

This watch epitomizes the elements that have become emblematic of Chinese Market watches, including a lavish musical mechanism, a floral enamel scene, and the iconic jump or centre seconds hand.

For another example of a similar musical watch by Bassereau, see Antiquorum, The Sandberg Collection, 31 March and 1 April 2001.