Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong,the Ritz Carlton Hotel,harbour Room, 3rd Floor, Nov 25, 2006

LOT 7

?The Tiger Hunt? Bovet, Fleurier, the enamel attributed to P. Amédée Champod. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1870. Very fine and very rare, large, mirror-image pair of silver gilt, painted on enamel and pearl-set center-seconds pocket watches with mirror-polished movements and Jacot duplex escapements.

HKD 200,000 - 250,000

USD 26,000 - 32,000 / EUR 20,000 - 26,000

Sold: HKD 472,000

C. Three-body, the back painted on enamel with a Hindu horseman on a white horse shooting arrows at a tiger in a jungle clearing, pearl-set bezels, pendant and bow. Spring-loaded glazed gilt-rimmed cuvette. D. White enamel, thin radial Roman numerals, outer minute and seconds divisions and Arabic 15-minute/seconds numerals. Blued steel ?flower? hands. M. 48 mm., mirror-polished and blued steel, "Chinese" caliber, 9 jewels, free-standing barrel, Jacot duplex escapement, bimetallic compensation balance with blued steel ?winged? weights, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator. Movements signed and also on the case with Chinese characters. Diam. 56 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 2-01

Very good

HANDS Original

Notes

For a watch painted with an extremely similar scene see: Antiquorum, Hong Kong, July 7, 2005, lot 372. For a discussion of watches made for the Chinese market, see pages 196 - 201. P.-Amédée Champod Along with John Graff, Champod was one of the most celebrated enamel painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specializing in hunting scenes. In his autobiography, which has been preserved by his descendants, he writes that he wanted to be a painter of large format scenes, but that economic realities led him to painting on enamel. He studied with Huguenin, Sauerländer, and Charles Glardon, who had the strongest impact on his future style. Champod dropped out of school at eleven and at sixteen began working. At the Paris Exhibition of 1900 Champod received a silver medal. His technique was outstanding, the sense of dynamics in his compositions was unrivaled. This type of watch rarely survives in pairs, they are in remarkably good condition and are excellent examples illustrating the popularity of Indian scenes in China, where the tiger is a symbol of wealth and traditional Chinese reserve.