Estienne Hubert à Rouen

Estienne Hubert à Rouen, circa 1660. Fine early silver calendar watch. Double body, bassine with split bezel, fully engraved on the band and back with a fine floral decoration of summer flowers in relief against a hatched ground. Silver champleve with Roman chapter-ring, quarter and half-hour divisions, the interior with black waxed summer flowers. Outer ring for the calendar. Blued-steel single hand and pointer for the date. Hinged gilt brass full plate with elaborate pierced pillars, fusee with gut-line, worm-and-wheel set-up with blued-steel finely pierced brackets, verge escapement, plain steel balance wheel without spring, irregular gilt brass oval foliage pierced and engraved cock. Signed on the back plate. In very good condition. Diam. 47 mm. Notes This watch, and the following lot are certainly the work of Estienne Hubert, the eldest son of Noël Hubert, the founder of a dynasty of watchmakers who were to spread throughout Europe with the increasing persecution of protestants in France towards the end of the 17th. century. Born in 1608, Estienne was the eldest son from his father's first marriage to Catherine Lescuyer, and as such gained his right to mastership through patrimony - Fils de Maître. - in 1656. That he received the patent so late in his career is certainly due to his having worked with his father up to the time of the latter's death circa 1654. He married Elisabeth Ronnieu, by whorn he had three sons who all subsequently became watchmakers. Estienn