82,600 CHF
"A Madame la Comtesse de Laval" Breguet, No. 3537, sold to the Comtesse de Laval on July 17, 1821, for 1,180 francs. Very fine and extremely rare, platinum and yellow gold pocket watch with ruby cylinder escapement. Four-body, "forme collier", polished, coin-edge band, yellow gold bezel, border and bow. Hinged platinum cuvette. Notes An identical watch to the present lot, bearing the number 3706, was sold by Antiquorum “The Art of Breguet” in 1991 as Lot 73. This had once belonged to Lord William Lowther (1787-1872), an English politician and aristocrat. From these two examples one may conclude that Breguet fitted all his rare platinum and gold cased watches with this type of movement and dial. As a metal, platinum was hardly ever used for jewellery at this period, and Breguet must certainly have been the first to make a case from it, although examples by him are exceptionnally rare. Countess Alexandrina Grigorievna Laval (1772 - 1850) Alexandrina Grigorievna was born on March 18, 1772, into a family used to displaying its wealth with pride. Her father was Grigori Vassilievitch Kozitsky, Secretary of State of Tsarina Catherine II; her mother was one of four daughters of the famous millionaire Ivan Semenovitch Miasnikoff, and her dowry included 19,000 peasants, a large sum of money, numerous precious objects, and factories in the Urals. At the age of twenty-five, Alexandrina Grigorievna received a marriage proposal from a French expatriate by the name of Laval. Unfor
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2006-10-15
