768,000 HKD
Bovet, London, No. 604, made for the Chinese Market, circa 1830. Very fine 18K gold and enamel centre seconds watch with special escapement. Double body, the fixed bezel, pendant and bow with green, blue and red champleve enamelled decoration, the back with a very fine enamel panel, painted in the manner of Richter, with a sea-side landscape, an Oriental sailing boat on the foreground, a military fortress on the background. Hinged glazed gold cuvette. White enamel with Roman numerals and outer minute and seconds ring. Blued and polished steel bar movement with free standing barrel, duplex escapement with steel wheel, flat plain polished steel three-arm balance, flat balance spring with regulator. Signed on the cuvette bezel. In very good condition. Diam. 59 mm. Notes According to A. Chapuis, La Monire Chinoise, a branch of the Bovet family settled in London in 1815. A watch signed Tevob (Bovet's Chinese signature), from the Geneva Museum, is illustrated page 76. Among other information, Chapuis mentions blued and polished steel movements of this type and indicates that to his knowledge, they were not produced in Fleurier, but in England. Due to the quality of the painting and the colours used, the enamel can be attributed to Richter who often depicted seascapes on watch cases and snuff boxes.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
1997-06-09
