63,250 CHF
Fromanteel & Clarke, London, made for a French client, circa 1700. Extremely rare and very fine 22K gold pair-cased watch with date, decorated in the French baroque style. Outer: double-body, engraved with inhabited foliage, a mask at the top, small medallion with a portrait in the center. Inner: double-body, "bassine", polished, loose ring pendant. Gold champlevé, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track with five-minute Arabic markers in polished cartouches, center pierced and chased with inhabited foliage. Blued steel "beetle and poker" hands. 41 mm., hinged gilt brass full plate with elaborate pierced gilt brass pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapment, plain steel three-arm balance, flat balance spring, gilt brass English cock with streamers pierced and engraved with foliage.Signed on the dial and back plate.Diam. 57 mm. Notes This watch is quite unusual in that it is an English watch decorated in the baroque style used for most French "oignon" watches. The so-called "sumptuary laws" passed during the reign of Louis XIV, forbidding the use of precious metals, probably encouraged clients to look abroad for French-style watches in gold and silver cases. Indeed, gold "oignon" cases are exceptionally rare.Fromanteel & Clarkeexcellent watchmakers, their watches and clocks can be found in the City of London Museum, the London Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, and others.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2002-11-16
