Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 84

?Peace and the Seven Cardinal Virtues? Johang Oldnburg, Hamburg, circa 1650. Magnificent, extremely rare and important, large 22 ct. gold and enamel single-hand pendant watch with concealed dial. To be sold without reserve.

CHF 200,000 - 300,000

EUR 130,000 - 200,000 / USD 160,000 - 250,000

Sold: CHF 193,250

C. Two-body, "bassine fermee" with curved band, entirely and finely painted on enamel, the front cover scene depicting the alliance between Peace and Justice, the inside cover with Fortitude and Wisdom, on the back an allegory of Charity and inside the back Hope and Faith, the band painted with a continuous rural landscape, short gold enamelled pendant. D. Gold, black enamel radial Roman chapters on a polished ring, quarter-hour divisions, the centre with a painted enamel depiction of Temperance pouring wine into a goblet. Gilt ?tulip? hand. M. 54.6 mm ø, hinged, gilt brass full plate, round baluster pillars, fusee and chain, short four-wheel train, verge escapement, two-arm steel circular foliot, elongated pierced and engraved cock secured by a screw, worm and wheel set-up. Signed on the movement. Dim. 62 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3-22-40-50

Good

Later original

Slightly repolished
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

It is rare to find such a large, early and painted enamel ?bassine fermée? watch case made in Germany. The technique of painting on enamel had been developed by Jean Toutin in Blois in 1632, barely twenty years before. It is therefore astonishing to see how quickly and expertly certain German artists were able to assimilate the technique. This watch appears to be the earliest German watch enamelled in the Blois manner. It is illustrated in ?Meister der Uhrmacher Kunst?, and described as ?the most important watch by Johan Oldnburg?. The watch is illustrated in Orologi nel Tempo by Luigi Pippa, Milano, 1966, pp. 154-55. The present lot was previously sold by Antiquorum Geneva in March/April 2001, lot 243.