Rare French gold and enamel pocket watch Circa 1645-1648

Gold and enamel pendant watch by Jacques Goullons
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A very fine and extremely rare French gold and enamel one handed verge pendant watch, circa 1645-1648.
The movement consists of two circular plates held apart by four baluster-shaped pillars, all of gilded brass. It contains a going train of three wheels and an escape wheel driven by a mainspring with gut fusee regulation and controlled by a verge escapement with a balance. The rachet and click set-up for the mainspring is mounted on the outside of the back plate, and it consists of a steel ratchet wheel and gilded brass decorative click pierced and engraved with a scrolled design of strawberry leaf, flower, and fruit ornament. The cock, attached to the backplate, secures the balance and is similarly ornamented. Engraved below the balance cock is the signature of the watchmaker.
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The circular case is suspended from a gold pendant and bow, and it has a hinged cover that snaps shut at the button. When open, it reveals the dial. The dial is mounted on the front plate of the movement, which is hinged to the case so that the dial and movement can be made to swing out together to permit access to the back plate of the movement for winding the mainspring by means of a key. The exterior of the cover of the case has an extraordinarily pure white enamel ground and supports applied ornament of raised and enamelled gold in a design of foliage radiating from a central rosette.
The exquisite workmanship of the case, the presence of the king’s portrait, and the royal arms’ all support the supposition that this watch belonged 1o Louis XIV (1638-1715), king of France. Until somewhat recently, these last two factors might have marked the watch as a royal presentation piece. However, the study of a watch in the Metropolitan Museum made for one of the king’s courtiers, Louis Hesselin, permits the identification of the Lehman watch as likely one of the king’s personal possessions. The applied elements are enamelled n light blue and white opaque colours and contrasting dark green and golden yellow translucent colours. The bottom is framed by a bezel consisting of concentric bands of scallops and guilloche ornament enamelled in opaque white on gold, The bezel is attached o the bottom of the case by means of six gold pins and was formerly joined to the side by a ring of small scallop shaped gold lugs that were originally bent under the edges of the bottom rim of the side. (Bath pins and lugs are visible m the image shown here.)
The applied ornament framing the exterior of the cover of the case duplicates that of the framing of the exterior of the bottom of the case itself, and it is pinned on in a similar fashion, A painted ename] miniature depicting King Louis XIV of France astride a rearing pony fills the interior surface of the cover. Dramatically silhouetted against a distant landscape and an open expanse of sky, the king is portrayed as a boy of about nine or ten years, with light brown hair, brown eyes, and pink cheeks, He wears a full suit of armour, a white lace collar, and a white and gold sash, the ends trailing in the breeze. In his right hand, he holds a baton, while with his left, he restrains the ardour of his pony. The saddle and a feather in the pony’s bridle are painted in shades of clear, bright vermilion, and the remaining tack is in shades of blue.
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The dial is mounted on the gilded brass front plate of the movement, which extends beyond the dial, the visible portion ornamented with an engraved leal design. The dial consists of an enamelled gold disk with the numerals of the hour chapter (I-XII} painted in black and the half hours marked by dotted ornaments.
The chapter 1s bordered by concentric bands of gold that are raised portions of the gold plate, and it encircles a landscape painted in natural colours, with a mill, a mill pond with a fisherman in a bright vermilion coat in the foreground, and a stag hunt in the distance. The single hand is chiselled with a foliate design. The interior of the case is also painted: the side, or band, with acanthus scrolling in black on pale blue enamel, and the bottom, with the arms of France and Navarre beneath the royal crown of France, above the initial L surmounted by a crown, and encircled by the collar and pendant of the Order of Saint Michel and that of the Saint-Esprit. These are painted in proper metallic, or heraldic, colours against a ground of white enamel dotted with red.
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Diameter: 56 mm
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Signed: Goullons, Paris
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JACQUES GOULLONS
Jacques Goullons, Coullons, or Gaulon, is first recorded as 1working in Paris in 1626 as a master clockmaker. In 1656 he held the post of a clockmaker to Gaston (1608-1660), Duc d’Orléans, the brother of King Louis XIII (1601-1643) of France, and probably later to Philippe (1640-1701), Duc d’Orléans, the brother of King Louis XIV (1638— 1715) of France. King Louis XIV’s minister, Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661), had a large, striking watch by Goullons in 1653, and in the middle years of the seventeenth century, Goullons made the movements for a series of watches with painted enamel cases, including three in the Metropolitan Museum. He died in 1671.