25,300 CHF
J. Snelling, London, circa 1750. Very fine gold and enamel pair-cased quarterrepeating watch. Double body outer, pierced and engraved with foliage, vignettes on the bezel and back embossed in high relief and enamelled with flowers and four vignettes representing the four elements depicted by animais, inset the centre panel with birds and flowers on matted ground. Inner, double body bassine, pierced and engraved with inhabited foliage and grotesque mask (makers mark I.W.). Gold champleve with Roman numerals and Arabic minute ring, centre cartouche in reserve. Blued-steel "poker and beetle" hands. Hinged gilt brass full-plate with turned pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring and regulator with gold disc, florally pierced and engraved, silver regulator and English gilt brass cocks. Quarter-repeating on a bell and atoc by depressing the pendant. Gilt brass dust cap. Signed on theback plate, dial and dust cap. In very good condition. Diam: 47mm. Notes This form of enamelling in high relief on a white ground is often attributed to the English goldsmith Alexander J. Strachant, but in fact he was only working from the latter part of the Regency period. The technique was rarely applied to watches during the 18th. century, and may well have originated in Germany.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
1994-04-10