18,975 CHF
"Poetry and Love" Lépine Horloger du Roy a Paris, "Invenit et Fecit", No. 5659. Paris hallmarks for 1789. Fine and extremely rare, 18K gold, painted on enamel and pearl-set pocket watch with wolf’s-toothed train. Two-body, by Guillaume Mermillod (GM), split-pearl set bezels, pendant and bow, concealed hinge, hinged and sprung back cover overlaid with green translucent guilloche enamel and centered with a finely painted partly-grisaille miniature depicting Erato with a putto in a classical landscape, gold paillon border. Hinged gilt brass cuvette. White enamel with mixed Roman and Arabic numerals, outer minute track with Arabic quarter-hour numerals. Gold pierced "fleur-de-lys and arrow" hands. Notes This watch is a very good example of Lépine's production for a very short period between 1788 and 1790. Not only by the case with concealed hinge and fixed bezel, but also by the movement with wolf's tooth wheel train wound from the back through the cuvette, by the dial with mixed Roman and Arabic numerals - the numeral I being surrounded by a thin line. It is extremely rare to find a watch with such unusual features in such good condition. Together with the very elegant interlaced hands, these three features mark the ultimate development of the style introduced by Jean-Antoine Lépine. According to A. Chapiro in his book “Jean-Antoine Lepine Horloger (1720-1814)”, the mixed Roman and Arabic numerals were only used by Lépine for the dials of watches numbered between 5
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2005-10-16
