27,600 CHF
Rinaldo and the Wood Nymphs Ami Monnier, Geneva, enamel signed Jean-François Soiron, circa 1780. An exceptional 18K varicolored gold and painted on enamel quarter-repeating watch with à toc and à tact option. Two-body, Louis XVI, back very finely painted on enamel with a scene depicting Rinaldo in the enchanted forest with the wood nymphs, bezels with laurel-leaf garlands of green gold intertwined in a serpentine pattern. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions with five-minute Arabic markers, winding aperture at 2 o’clock. Diamond-set Louis XVI hands. 31 mm, hinged, frosted gilt full-plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement brass balance with flat balance spring, continental cock, repeating on bell by depressing the pendant.Signed on the movement, enamel signed "Soiron Fecit".Diam. 40 mm. Notes This is the first watch we have seen with an enamel scene signed by Soiron. Rinaldo and the Wood Nymphs The scene is taken from Torquato Tasso’s (1544-95) romantic epic "Gerusalemme Liberata" (1581), a chivalric romance very popular in its time. Rinaldo’s journey along the Po in the last cantos of the Furioso is sometimes described as a voyage parallel to the homecoming of Homer’s Odysseus. Here, the medieval Christian knight Rinaldo has entered the enchanted forest, where monstrous apparitions have prevented his men from gathering wood to build their war-machines. Suddenly, hundreds of tree nymphs appear, surrounding Rinaldo. Jea
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-04-24
