13,800 HKD
Portrait of a Royal Lady Lepine A Paris. Made circa 1766. Very fine and very rare, gold and rose-cut diamond-set skeletonized pendant watch with a painted on enamel portrait of a Royal lady. To be sold without reserve Two-body, “Louis XV”, glazed on both sides, rose-cut diamond-set bezels, band engraved with a repeated pattern. White enamel, radial Roman numerals intersected by rose-cut diamond-set indexes, outer minute track with five-minute Arabic numerals. Gilt Louis XV hands. 33 mm, hinged, frosted and engraved gilt skeletonized plate with conical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement with micrometric potence adjustment, three-arm brass balance with blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, triangular single-footed solid engraved cock, rose-cut diamond-set silver filigree applied plate set with an oval painted on enamel portrait of a royal lady wearing a blue dress and red robe with ermine collar. Dial signed. Diam. 40 mm Notes The enamel portrait possibly represents Princess Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy-Carignan, Princess de Lamballe, an Italian-French courtier, aristocrat of the House of Savoy, and royal confidante to Queen Marie-Antoinette. Her killing sparked a movement of anti-revolutionary propaganda, which ultimately led to the development and implementation of the Reign of Terror. An almost identical watch but without the enamel portrait is illustrated in "Jean-Antoine Lepine, horloger (1720- 1814)" by Adolphe Chapiro, Paris, 1988, p. 40. Fr
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2008-06-08
