Reveries Daniel Schepcke

Reveries Daniel Schepcke, Horloger du Roy à Varsovie, circa 1775. Fine and very rare 18K gold and painted on enamel quarter-repeating watch. Two-body, “Louis XV”, back centered with oval enamel medallion painted with a wistful young girl in a park with ruins in the background, matte gold ground decorated with horns-of-plenty, back bezel pierced for sound, extended hinge. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, five-minute/seconds Arabic markers, winding aperture at 2 o’clock. Diamond-set “Louis XVI” hands. 35 mm., hinged, frosted gilt full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, brass balance with flat balance spring, continental cock, Julien LeRoy type repetition, repeating on bell by depressing the pendant. Signed on dial and movement. Diam. 46 mm. Notes Daniel Schepcke (d. 1775). The first watchmaker to the King to have special privileges (accorded on March 7, 1765), including complete independence from the Clockmaker’s Guild. His quarters, consisting of “three small rooms and a kitchen”, were on the second floor of the King’s palace. His salary was 1000 tynfs per year and he was in addition paid for each watch or clock ordered by the King. The bills he presented to the King, as well as the palace inventories, show that he made clocks, watches, barometers and scientific instruments. The watches ordered by the King were given mostly as presents to foreign dignitaries and members of his court. One of the bills, dated July