Swiss gold and enamel open faced verge watch Circa 1680

Gold and enamel verge watch by Domenicus Molenaer
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An important Swiss gold and enamel open faced verge pocket watch, Herod, Herodias and Salome, circa 1680. Re-gilded decorated full plate movement, keywind, chain and fusee, baluster-shaped pillars, three-arm brass balance, blued balance spring, engraved and pierced balance bridge. White enamel dial with radial Arabic numerals and Louis XVI hands. The case back with a polychrome enamel scene depicting King Herod, his wife Herodias and Salome according to the legend, on Herod’s birthday Salome danced before the guests and everyone was so enraptured by her dancing that the King promised to give her whatever she would ask for, instructed by her mother, Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist, Herod had John beheaded and his head was delivered to Salome on a platter, the band with landscape vignettes separated by acanthus scrolls, the interior with a classical landscape showing ruins and gures, the enamelling signed Huaud le puis ne fecit, lavishly engraved bezel.
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Diameter: 35 mm
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Weight: 42 g
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Signed: Dom Molenaer
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Les Frères Huaut (or Huaud). The cases painted on enamel by ‘Les deux Frères Huaut’ were among the finest examples of their kind from the Geneva School and were not only highly valued when originally made, but remained as art treasures in the centuries that followed. Pierre I was the founder of the Huaud dynasty. He was born in 1612 in Geneva as the son of a French goldsmith Jean Huaud. He settled in Geneva in 1630 and three of his 11 children became famous enamellists like their father: Pierre II (1647-1698), Jean-Pierre (1655-1723) and Ami (1657-1724). The brothers were most likely trained by their father and worked with him. Pierre II started his own business around 1680. Jean-Pierre and Ami became partners in 1682 and were appointed painters to the Prussian court in 1686 when they moved to Berlin and started working for Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg (1620-1688). Among their most well-known works are Diana and Actaeon, The Judgement of Paris, The Holy Family, St. John the Baptist, The Nativity and The Adoration of the Shepherds.