Swiss/French silver and gold pair of souscription watches Circa 1815

Unique pair of watches with micro mosaic cases
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A unique pair of souscription watches in the manner of Breguet made in Geneva and Paris, circa 1810. The open faced cases of these watches, which were crafted from silver and gold, each have a highly refined polychrome micro mosaic on the back of the Ponte Salaro (Salaro or Salario Bridge) and the Ponte Mammolo (Mammolo Bridge) over the river Aniene, a tributary of the Tiber. Both watches have a white enamel dial with Arabic hours, an inner minute track and one Breguet hand. The numbered movements have a cylinder escapement.
The movements are signed.
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Diameter of both watches: 63 mm
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Weight of both watches: 157 g.
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Signed: Breguet
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The calibers of these watches are not made by Breguet, but most likely by his business partner, Louis Decombaz, in Geneva. Both dials were probably supplied by Breguet, hence the matching secret signature.

These timepieces are the only souscription watches known to date with micro mosaic decoration. The watches are in all probability the subject of an order for the Italian market and/or intended for a member of a patrician family of the Roman nobility, as the art of micro mosaic flourished in Rome at the end of the 18^th century.

The attribution to the workshop of Decombaz results from a watch (in a private collection) with a similar souscription-like movement signed by him. Although the name Louis Decombaz has fallen into oblivion today, it is important to know that he was the preferred contact of Abraham-Louis Breguet in Geneva at the beginning of the 19^th century and that it was he who made watches with complicated mechanisms for the Parisian master. Decombaz was one of the best Geneva watchmakers of his time.
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Engravings by Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782) from 1754 served as a template for the micro mosaic on the case backs.
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Micro mosaics
Micro mosaics consist of tiny pieces of glass, fragments of coloured enamel or small hard stones, assembled on a very small area, often just a few square centimetres. Micro mosaics flourished from the late 18th to early 19th centuries.

The first documented exhibition of micro mosaics was held in 1775 by Giacomo Raffaelli (1753-1836) in his private studio in Piazza di Spagna. Raffaelli came from a family of workshop mosaicists. Many innovations are credited to him, although some were probably developed a little earlier. Most significant was the invention of the ‘smalti filati’. These are narrow, thin glass rods that are stretched and cut vertically, creating very fine, small mosaic stones. Raffaelli primarily produced micromosaics depicting views of ancient Rome, which were purchased by the wealthy European nobility as small travel souvenirs. This repertoire of images proved to be extremely successful commercially and continued to be produced for a long time. In 1820, there were more than twenty workshops in Rome.

Antonio Aguatti (?-1846), another scion of a dynasty of successful Italian mosaic artists, further refined this imagery. He achieved greater naturalness in his work by increasing the variety of shapes in the tesserae, including curves and curves. These changes allowed him to make his work look like it was painted with brushstrokes. In 1834, he was appointed professor at the Studio Vaticano del Mosaico.
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Ponte Salario
The Ponte Salario, also called Ponte Salaro during the Middle Ages, is a bridge in Rome, Italy, which origins date back to the Roman period. In antiquity, it was situated outside the city limits, 3 km north of the Porta Collina, at the point where the Via Salaria (now the SS4) crossed the Aniene, a tributary of the Tiber. The visible side arches are assumed to originate from the first stone structure built during the 1^th century BC. During the Gothic War (535-554), the main arch was largely destroyed by the Ostrogothic king Totila, but repaired by his East Roman opponent Narses in 565. Narses recorded the extensive restoration works, including a river diversion, in an extant bridge inscription. At that time, the Ponte Salario was 72 m long and 6.52 m wide, with its semi circular arch reaching a remarkable clear span of 24.86 m.

The large bridge tower was possibly erected in the 8^th century, allowing more effective control of the passage. In 1798, the Ponte Salario, which had been hitherto well preserved due to repeated repairs, was battered by Napoleonic troops, who tore down the balustrade, including the ancient inscription. In 1829, the medieval tower was demolished and in 1849 the bridge was cut on a length of 15 m by French soldiers. In 1867, the bridge once and for all lost its historical character, when papal troops blew up the central arch. The Ponte Salario was reconstructed in its current form in 1874, with the roadway widened in 1930.

Ponte Mammolo
Giuseppe Vasi started his book (1754) covering the monuments along the River Tiber in Italy with three etchings showing the bridges which crossed the Aniene, a tributary coming from Subiaco and Tivoli, and joining the Tiber north of the Ponte Milvio. Via Tiburtina, the road leading to Tivoli crosses the Aniene twice. Vasi chose to show the Ponte Mammolo, the bridge nearest to Rome, although the Ponte Lucano, another bridge, offered a more evocative view because of a nearby ancient mausoleum. He showed the latter in a small etching on the book’s opening page.