23,000 CHF
The CherubUnsigned, Geneva, circa 1810. Very fine and amusing 18 ct. gold and enamel, pearl-set form watch with concealed dial, designed as a winged cherub with centre seconds and matching brooch. 21.7 mm o, gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, plain three-arm brass balance, double-footed cock engraved with foliage, rack and pinion regulator with a silver plate, set and wound from the back, centre seconds run from the third wheel.Dim. Length with brooch 59 mm, width 49 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, page 422-423. Notes The movement is quite different from typical form watch movements due to the centre-seconds indication, and it is wound and set from the back. The second wheel is off-centre, allowing for a larger mainspring, the cock is of an unusual form, and the fusee does not have a typical stop lever but employs Maltese cross stopwork set on the back plate.This watch is the quintessence of Genevan form watches from the turn of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. In fact, an almost identical watch from the Musée de l'horlogerie et de l'émaillerie in Geneva has been chosen innumerable times, along with one similar to lot No. 382, to represent Geneva's montres de fantaisie in different exhibitions, catalogues, and books.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2001-03-31