Pere Bouhelier

Pere Bouhelier, No. 756, French, Swiss border, circa 1820. Very fine and extremely rare 18K gold hunting cased, quarter repeating watch with and early form of lever escapement. Four body, massive, "forme quatre baguettes", engine-turned, borders pendant and bow chased with a floral decoration. Hinged gold engineturned cuvette engraved with technical details. White enamel with Roman numerals, the centre decorated with acid etched foliage. Gold engraved arrow hands. Notes Pere Bouhelier was native to Saint Julien, a small village near Charquemont, in Franche Comte, where his surname was very common. Although mostly farmers, the population made cylinder escapements in winter time, for both the French and the Swiss makers. It is interesting to note that the few watches known from this maker are all constructed with this very unusual calibre and all set with the same type of straight line lever escapement. In fact, only three other watches made by the Pere Bouhelier are known to exist. Two were discussed in Horlocerie Ancienne, bulletin of the A.N.C.1--I. A. (an off-print copy will be supplied with the watch), the third one was sold by Antiquorum in Geneva on 20 October 1991, lot No. 54. These three watches were made with very special primitive calibre, each of special design. It was difficult to decide whether he was ahead of his time, technologically speaking, or behind. As Pere Bouhelier was a priest who emigrated to England during the French Revolution, it is most like Read more…