Swiss musical watch made for the Chinese market Circa 1825

Gold quarter repeating cylinder watch
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A very fine and rare Swiss, musical and quarter repeating, 18K gold, polychrome enamel and pearl-set, centre seconds pocket watch playing music on the hour or at will, circa 1825. Palemon and Lavinia by LeRoy, Swiss, movement attributed to Piguet & Meylan. Made for the Chinese market. The back with a finely painted on enamel scene depicting Lavinia receiving the letter, the bezels with two waves of azure and translucent red enamel set with graduated pearls, pearl-set pendant and bow, bolt on the band for start/stop of the music. Hinged gold cuvette decorated with blue and white champlevé enamel foliage, apertures for hand-setting, winding the music and going train.
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White enamel dial, radial Roman numerals, outer minute and seconds divisions with fifteen-minute Arabic numerals. Gilt fleur de lis hands. A frosted gilt movement, standing barrels, cylinder escapement, three-arm gold balance, flat balance spring, polished steel endplate, index regulator, music with double-pinned disk and 20 blued steel tuned teeth playing on both sides, music/silence lever protruding from under the cuvette, repeating on gongs activated by depressing the pendant. Dial signed, movement numbered.
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Diameter: 57 mm
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Signed: LeRoy  Swiss
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This painting illustrates a story from James Thomson’s popular poem “The Seasons” dating from 1726-1730. The rural lovers Palemon and Lavinia appear in Thomson’s Autumn; they are adapted from the Biblical story of Ruth and Boaz. Palemon, a gentleman, professes his love for the country girl Lavinia, in a harvest-time setting. Thomson’s sentimental fantasy of rural romance was particularly attractive to a generation brought up on the ideals of Sensibility. The poem that accompanies this scene is as follows: And are thou then Acastos’ dear remains? She whom my restless Gratitude has sought// So long in vain, O Heav’ns! the very frame The softened Image of my Noble Friend.