Important Collector's Watches, Pocket...

Geneva, Nov 11, 2007

LOT 122

Au Baron Delmare Breguet, Horloger de la Marine Royale, No. 127, sold to Monsieur Barnewall on November 18th, 1826 for 1,600 francs, bought back on September 20th, 1834 for 1,000 francs and re-sold to Baron Delmare on April 27th, 1835, for 1,800 francs. Very fine and rare, two-tone, 20K gold and silver, "répétition d'or moyenne à ponts à 2 marteaux", quarter-repeating pocket watch with ruby cylinder escapement.

CHF 30,000 - 40,000

EUR 18,000 - 25,000 / USD 25,000 - 35,000

C. Four-body, ?forme quatre baguettes?, No. 4089, by Tavernier (master mark), engine-turned silver band, polished back. Hinged gold cuvette. D.White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, eccentric subsidiary seconds at 5 o?clock. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 42 mm (19???), gilt brass, overhanging ruby cylinder escapement, plain three-arm balance with parachute on the top pivot, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator with bimetallic temperature compensation curb, jeweled escapement, repeating on two gongs with two hammers activated by pull-and-twist piston at 2 o?clock on the band. Dial and cuvette signed. Diam. 48 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-52

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-45-53-01

Good

Reprinted

HANDS Original

Notes

Provenance: Bloomfield Collection, San Diego. This watch is recorded in the archives as having a silver dial ("cadran argent Tavernier"), the present white enamel dial would have been fitted in the Breguet workshop probably between the time the watch was bought back from Barnewall and was resold to Baron Delmare. It has not been possible to trace a "Baron Delmare", however in the archives the spelling in of the names of Breguet's clients, particularly the English names, is rather hit-and-miss, and "Baron Delmare" is quite likely to be Thomas Cholmondeley, 1st Baron Delamere 1767?1855.

Delamere
was the son of Thomas Cholmondeley (pronounced "Chumley"), Member of Parliament for Cheshire, and Dorothy Cowper. He was elected to the House of Commons for his father's old seat of Cheshire in 1796, which he retained until 1812, and also served as High Sheriff of Cheshire. In 1821 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Delamere, of Vale Royal in the County of Chester. Lord Delamere married Henrietta Elizabeth Williams-Wynn, daughter of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet, and Charlotte, daughter of Prime Minister George Grenville, in 1810. He died in October 1855, aged 88, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Hugh Cholmondeley.