Gris Trianon

“Gris Trianon”. Piguet & Meylan, Geneva, No. 6377, enamel attributed to Jean-François Dupont, circa 1820, made for the Chinese market. Extremely fine and equally rare 18K gold and painted on enamel, graduated pearl-set center seconds quarter-repeating watch. Four-body, “Empire”, the back exquisitely painted on enamel with a portrait of a fashionable Genevan lady on a gris trianon ground, broad frame of translucent emerald green enamel over wavy engine-turning, bezels set with fine graduated split pearls and red enamel simulating rubies on black enamel ground, band, pendant and bow decorated in champlevé enamel, gold hinged cuvette decorated with translucent imperial blue and azure champlevé enamel in floral and foliate pattern, spring-loaded front and back covers. White enamel, Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, outermost seconds divided into fourths. Blued steel “lozenge” hands. Notes It appears that Piguet & Meylan made two series of watches with portraits of ladies, one depicting “The Four Seasons” (“La Montre Chinoise”, Alfred Chapuis and Gustave Loup, p. 72), and the other ladies in various modes of dress. The present watch belongs to this series. Another from the same series is in the Wilsdorf Rolex Collection (Pl. 41 in the book “Montres et Emaux de Genève”). Both series are clearly painted by the same artist. Furthermore, the lady on our watch greatly resembles the one in the “Spring” of the “Four Season” series. A similar portrait decorates the watch sold