Virtue and Vice Ilbery

Virtue and Vice Ilbery, London, No. 7171, the enamel attributed to Jean-François-Victor Dupont (1785-1863). Made for the Chinese market, circa 1820. Extremely fine and extremely rare, large, 18K gold, painted on enamel and pearl-set pocket watch with duplex escapement. Four-body, "Empire", the bezel decorated with gold scrolls and royal blue, light blue and white champleve enamel set with graduated split pearls, the back cover decorated with a finely painted on enamel scene of a young lady in a yellow dress holding a letter and a pink rose, while to the right an old man from behind a curtain offers her a bag of money to surrender her virtue, outer border decorated to match the bezel, the band decorated with engraved gold stylized flowers with light blue centers and on a black ground. Hinged gold cuvette with engraved decoration. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds. Gold ovoid hands. 50 mm., gilt brass, Chinese calibre, fully engraved with foliate decoration, standing barrel, single wheel duplex escapement, bimetallic compensation balance with brass weights with wedge-shaped steel caps, adjustment screws, flat balance spring, diamond endstone, index regulator. Movement signed. Diam. 61.5 mm. Notes William Ilbery (ca. 1760-1839). Active in London from 1780 in Goswell Street, he moved to Duncan Terrace towards the end of the 18th century. Following James Cox in London and Jaquet Droz in Switzerland, he also specialised in the p