276,000 HKD
James Cox, London, circa 1775. Fine and rare 18K gold and gilt metal ruby-set animated watch designed as a heart with concealed enamel erotic scenes, made for the Chinese market. Three-body, "Consular", heart-shaped, hinged back with painted enamel scene of Venus and Adonis, ruby-set front bezel, the borders with champlevé enamelled pattern of intertwined laurel leaves and wavy lines, the inside back enamel shows a gentleman with dowsing apparatus appears to be seeking the point of greatest attraction. On the dome another painting of a libertine couple in a garden, the counter-enamel with a flower bouquet. Heart-shaped, enamelled with a lakeside village, a diamond-set animated windmill on either bank, small eccentric white enamel dial with Roman chapters, outer minute divisions with Arabic five minutes, framed by an elaborate pink enamel cartouche. Gold hands. Heart-shaped 33 x 34 mm., hinged, gilt brass full plate with cylindrical baluster pillars, fusee and chain, cylinder escapement, brass escape wheel, plain three-arm brass balance, flat balance spring, single-footed cock pierced and engrved with asymmetrical scrolling, the automaton driven by an additional wheel added to the going train which drives two pinions on which the mills are mounted.Signed on the movement.Dim. 55 x 43 mm. Notes The watch is illustrated and described in "Les Heures de l'Amour" by Roland Carrera, Editions Scriptar/Antiquorum,Geneva, 1993, on the front cover and pp. 63-64.Venus and Adonis
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2002-06-08
