Swiss gold, enamel and pearl set pocket watch Circa 1790
- Kenmerk
- AA0209
- Diameter
- 48 mm
- Estimate
- € 9.000 - 17.500
- Price sold
- -
Decorative pocket watch with open face by Les Frères Esquivillon & DeChoudens
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An exquisite, gold, enamel, key-winding, Swiss Directoire pocket watch studded with half pearls, circa 1790.
Round-shaped, 18-carat yellow gold, enamel and pearl-set case. Case back painted on enamel on gold by an unidentified Genevan workshop, showing La Fontaine d’Amour (The Fountain of Love), after a painting of Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), dated circa 1785, and a contemporary engraving of Nicholas-François Regnault (1746-1810). Signed enamel dial with Breguet radial hours, outer minutes track with Arabic five minutes numerals, and gold decorative hands. Signed, full plate, gilded brass movement, fusee and chain, verge escapement, monometallic balance (gilded brass), blued steel flat hairspring, and pierced and engraved gilded continental cock.
Accompanied by a protective glazed case (Ø 53 mm.)
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Diameter: 48 mm
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Signed: Les Frères Esquivillon & DeChoudens
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La Fontaine d’Amour (The Fountain of Love)
This work of Fragonard was known soon after its creation as a great success, as shown by the realization of several watches made in Geneva circa 1790, whose enamel painting is executed from engravings widely circulated at the time. In the early 19th century, the Parisian bronzer Claude Galle (1759-1815), bronzier and fondeur-ciseleur, still used as a motif of one of his clocks. The painting of Fragonard (H. 64.1 cm. / L. 52.7 cm.) is today kept in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California (USA). Frères Esquivillon & DeChoudens were Master watchmakers actives in the last quarter of the 18th and early 19th centuries (between 1776 and circa 1800). In 1774, Gédéon-François Esquivillon became associated with his brother, Joseph Esquivillon, and Jaques DeChoudens (or Dechoudens).
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Geneva watchmaker Jacques Dechoudens (1728-1801) and brothers Joseph Esquivillon (1714-1798), Jean François Esquivillon (1733-1813) and Gédéon-François Esquivillon (1717-1799) founded a workshop which produced high-quality verge pocket watches.
Signed: Les Fréres Esquivillon & DeChoudens, Genève






















