210,000 HKD
Mirror Image Pair – Mother & Daughter E. ervay, Fleurier, No. 452 & 472. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1870. Very fine and very rare, large, mirror-image pair of gilt, painted on enamel and pearl-set pocket watches with center-seconds and duplex escapements. Three-body, “Empire”, reeded band, back painted on enamel with a mother and her daughter with a parasol seated on a rustic stile, translucent royal blue enamel ground over wavy-line engine-turning, pearl-set bezels, pendant and bow. Silver-gilt spring-loaded cuvette fixed to the movement ring. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute/seconds divisions with fifteen-minute/seconds Arabic numerals. Gilt spoon hands. 47 mm, frosted and chased and engraved, Chinese caliber with standing barrel, 4 jewels, duplex escapement, polished steel five-arm flat-rim balance, blued steel flat balance-spring, index regulator. Movement signed, case with faux London hallmarks. Diam. 59 mm. Notes Although most of the watches and snuffboxes with automata destined for the Chinese market were made in pairs, the majority of them were later separated. It is very rare to find a pair still together. For a discussion on watches for the Chinese market see: Antiquorum, Hong Kong, November 11, 2006, p. 196-201.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2008-06-08
