48,300 CHF
A la Princesse Kourakin Watch No. 3604, sold on 10 Februrary 1821, for the sum of 2400 Francs. Gold hunting-cased "médaillon à tact", with unusual calendar aperture. Original red leather fitted case. Notes History: According to the records this watch, sold originally on 10 February 1821, was bought back on 25 May 1822, for 1800 Francs. Resold on 13 August 1822, for 2400 Francs, to the Comtesse de Vintimille, after being converted at her request into a montre à tact. It was returned for restoration in 1837 by a Monsieur de Lostanges , and again in 1861 by a Monsieur Money, Captain in 9th Regiment of the line. Note: In the fabrication and sales books, the calendar on this watch is qualified by the word extraordinaire. No explanation is given, and such a qualification does not appear against other watches with a date aperture from the same period. A possible explanation may be the positioning of the aperture between the numerals II and III. It is reset by a pin in the band of the case. The point of the à tact hand on the cover has an unrierhang running in a groove, a normal feature when only the hand is turning, and the cover is fixed. PRINCESS NATALIA IVANOVNA KURAKINE Born in Moscow in 1766 to Ivan Sergeevitch Golovine and Catherine Alexeevna, née Princess Galitzine, she was married at the age of nineteen to Prince Alexis Borissovitch Kurakine, by whom she had three children, a son, Boris, and two daughters, Helen and Alexandrina. After the gay life of St. Petersburg
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
1991-04-14
