Swiss gold hunting cased watch with concealed portrait Circa 1854

Gold, enamel, diamond and ruby set watch by Patek Philippe
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A small, historically interesting Swiss 18 Carat gold and enamel full hunter cased lever pocket watch with diamonds and rubies, an early winding and setting device and concealed portrait, circa 1854. Sold on June 24th, 1857. Round shaped case, both sides garnet colour flinqué enamel, the front with the head of a deer set with rose cut diamonds, the eyes with rubies, on the back the diamond set cypher JC, chiselled case band. Engine turned and engraved cuvette with the en grisaille portrait of a gentleman attributable to Gaspard Lamunière. White enamel dial with Roman radial hours, outer minutes track and Breguet hands. Signed, gilded brass movement with going barrel, straight line equilibrated lever escapement, key winding, compensated balance and blued steel flat hairspring.
Accompanied by an Extract from the Archives.
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Diameter: 37 mm
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Signed: Patek Philippe
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Patek Philippe watches with concealed portrait
Patek Philippe produced in its early years twenty or so watches with portraits, most related to the heroic history of Poland. These are usually painted on enamel, polychrome or en grisaille (a so-called grey painting) generally by Gaspard Lamunière on decor and frames of a so-called Spiess. These portraits are either on the case back or on the cuvette, a “portrait caché” (concealed portrait) or in a secret double back, “cuvette intérieure” (inner cuvette).
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The following 23 watches are listed, six of which are kept in the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva: No. 497, Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746-1817), a patriot and Polish general, the soul of the resistance against the Russians. No. 780, Zaleski. No. 1 188. No. 1 206. No. 1 291, Le petit Kisieleff. No. 1 327, Rzywarska. No. 1 388 Kosciuszko & Poniatowski, Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746- 1817), a patriot and Polish general, Józef Antoni Poniatowski (1763-1813), Prince and Polish officer. No. 1 427 Un général (a General), Ludwik Kicki (1790- 1831), a Polish general and hero of the 1830 Revolution, sold for the amount of CHF 18,750 in Sotheby’s Geneva auction on November 10th, 2015, lot 160. No. 1 428 Le Roi de Hanovre (The King of Hanover). No. 2 613 Joseph Tyszkiewicz, a Polish count and historian. No. 4 035 Washington, George Washington (1732-1799), an American general and statesman, the first president of the United States of America (1789-1795). No. 4 326. No. 5 201. No. 6 061. No. 8 380. No. 8 560, Jones. No. 8 832, Impératrice du Brésil (Empress of Brazil). No. 8 952. No. 9 785, the present watch. No. 10 395. No. 10 396. No. 10 937, un inconnu (a stranger). No. 17 371, Ecce Homo.
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Gaspard Lamunière, 1810-1865, Geneva.
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A grisaille (en grisaille), or grey painting, is a painting in which one does not apply natural colours but restricts oneself to depicting things in all possible shades of the same colour, usually grey or brown.