312,900 CHF
“Allegory of Autumn” Piguet & Meylan, Genève, No. 6019, the case by Frères Oltramare. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1815. Extremely fine and very rare, 18K gold and painted on enamel, pearl-set, center seconds, musical, quarterrepeating pocket watch playing music on the hour or at will, the enamel by Jean Abraham Lissignol (1749-1819). White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions and Arabic quarter-hour numerals. Gold “lozenge” hands. Notes It appears that Piguet & Meylan made two series of watches with portraits of ladies, one depicting “The Four Seasons” (“La Montre Chinoise”, Alfred Chapuis and Gustave Loup, p. 72), and the other ladies in various modes of dress. Another from the same series is in the Rolex Wilsdorf Collection (Pl. 41 in the book “Montres et Emaux de Genève”). Both series are clearly painted by the same artist. A similar portrait decorates the watch sold by Antiquorum on October 11, 2003, lot 120, also June 20, 1998, lot 474. A very similar watch, No. 6016, but with the image reversed, is in The Patek Philippe Museum, Geneva. Jean Abraham Lissignol. Born in Geneva on May 1749, died in Plainpalais on June 28, 1819. One of the best enamel painters of the later part of the eighteenth century, he was the pupil of Jean-Marc Roux and later became his partner. He specialized in decorating enameled snuffboxes and watch cases, working for Jaquet-Droz, Leschot, the Rochat brothers, and John Rich. Frères Oltramare Working in Geneva betwe
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2006-11-12
