65,550 CHF
“La Forge de Cupidon” Des Arts & Compagnie, Geneva. Made circa 1800. Very fine and rare, 18K gold and painted on enamel double-face pocket watch with automaton scene, quarter repeating on a bell incorporated within the movement. Two-body, “Directoire”, polished, glazed back. White enamel with Arabic numerals, outer minute track and Arabic quarter hour numerals. Pierced gold hands. Automaton dial finely painted on enamel with a Swiss landscape, the vari-coloured chased gold automata comprising two Martin-Martine type jacks in 18th Century costume appearing to strike the hours and the quarters on two bells above, two cherubs between forging the weapons of Venus, grassy foreground with a sleeping dog, the automata driven by the repeating work. Gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, going barrel, cylinder escapement, plain brass three-arm balance beneath he dial, flat balance spring, repeating on two bells situated between the plates activated by depressing the pendant, milled regulation wheel in the dial plate. Dial signed. Diam. 54 mm. Notes This type of movement was also used by Genevan watchmakers such as Chevalier & Cochet, Moricand, Jacques Patron, and others. Des Arts & Cie Watchmakers at the end of the 18th Century and the first quarter of the 19th Century producing repeating and automaton watches. See: Osvaldo Patrizzi, “Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois”, Antiquorum Editions, p. 160.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2005-10-16
