34,500 CHF
Diana the Huntress. George Graham, London, No. 753, hallmarked 1737-38. Very fine and rare 22K pair-cased quarter repeating watch with à tact option. Outer: two-body, by master casemaker John Ward, pronounced hinge, back repoussé and chiseled with a scene depicting Diana arming her bow to shoot at a wild boar seen in the background among trees, a dog at her feet, four vignettes with rural scenes, pierced and engraved band with scrolling. Inner: band entirely pierced and engraved with stylized foliage, mask, polished back with small rosette in the center. Gold, champlevé radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions with five-minute Arabic markers on polished cartouches, matted reserve. Mounted on a brass hinged dial plate. Blued steel "beetle and poker" hands. Notes This watch is superbly finished: its balance staff was jeweled at a period when jeweling was far from common; it is made with the tampons in bronze bushings, sandwiching the steel impulse part; the balance spring is studded by a square pin to reduce deformation of the terminal part. The cylinder escapement, although known for forty years, was only applied by the best makers, of whom Graham was the most eminent. The repeating mechanism is made according to the Stogden system, which, though complex to make, was the most reliable at the time. Breguet himself subsequently used it in his early years, later devising his own system which was also a modification of Stogden's. Matthew Stogden was a workman of Grah
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2003-11-16
