1,800,000 HKD
Mirror Image Pair - Farewell to the Beloved Swiss, Geneva, movement Nos. 1829 & 1830, the case of the left-hand watch (A), No. 5219, the right-hand watch (B) No. 5220. Made for the Chinese market circa 1830, and attributed to the Frères Oltramare. Extremely fine and very rare, mirror-image pair of 18K gold and painted on enamel, pearl-set center seconds, musical, quarterrepeating pocket watches playing music on the hour or at will. Gold, champlevé radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, acanthus engraved decoration between the numerals, engine-turned center and outermost border. Blued steel serpentine hands. 44 mm., gilt brass, fixed going barrel, cylinder escapement, three-arm plain brass balance with blued steel flat balance spring, sur plateau musical movement with fixed barrel, 21 vibrating teeth, repeating on gongs activated by depressing the pendant. Watch A - case punched with the mark of Freres Oltramare, movement and case numbered. Watch B – movement and case numbered. Diam. 53 mm. Notes Frères Oltramare Originally from Genova, the family settled in Geneva in the 17th century. Branches of the family were engaged in the watchmaking trade by the second half of the 18th century. The watchmaker Pierre Oltramare (1753-1827) had apprenticed under the "maître horloger" Jean Pattey of Passiery in 1768. The mark of F.O. is that of Louis-David-Benjamin and Jean Hughes. Both trained as "monteur de boites en or", makers of gold watch cases. They worked together
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2009-06-27
