6,325 CHF
David J. Magnin, Geneva, No. 67900, circa 1880.Fine 18 ct. gold and enamel, diamond-set hunting cased key-wound watch decorated in Egyptian Revival style, with matching brooch. White ename, Roman chapters, subsidiary sunk seconds. Blued-steel Breguet hands. Notes Jaquet-Droz, Pierre (1721-1790)Born on July 28, 1721 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Pierre Jaquet-Droz was the son of a farmer who was an occasional clockmaker as well. He studied humanities and philosophy in Basel from 1738 to 1739 and then became interested in horology. We know little of him as a person, only that he was sober, serious, taciturn, and very careful in his work. On October 25, 1750, Pierre Jaquet-Droz married Marianne Sandoz, the daughter of Civil Lieutenant Abraham Louis Sandoz, who was later to accompany Pierre on hitrip to Spain. At the age of thirty-four Pierre Jaquet-Droz was left a widower. He never remarried, and seems to have devoted himself to his work as a watchmaker with all the more intensity.The second child of Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his wife Marianne, Henry-Louis , was born on October 13, 1752. Recognizing that he was a gifted child, his father sent him to Nancy to study music, science, mathematics, physics and drawing. In 1758, Jaquet-Droz made the long and difficult journey to Spain, to present his works to King Ferdinand VI. When he returned, the sum he brought back enabled him to devote himself to the making of the famous Jaquet-Droz automata, the writer, draughtsman, and musican, and t Read more…
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2001-03-31
