Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong,the Ritz Carlton Hotel,harbour Room, 3rd Floor, Jun 02, 2007

LOT 104

?Palemon & Lavinia? Will(ia)m Story, London, No. 11320. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1770. Very fine and very rare, large, gilt metal, painted on enamel and paste-set, pair-cased coach and table watch with center seconds and stop-feature.

HKD 120,000 - 140,000

USD 16,000 - 18,000 / EUR 12,000 - 14,000

Sold: HKD 165,200

C. Outer: two-body, "bassine", box hinged, the bezel foliate-engraved and set with alternating pairs of white and red paste stones, back with an oval reserve decorated with a painted on enamel scene of Palemon & Lavinia, translucent guilloché red enamel and white enamel ?pearl? border, outer ring borders of white and green enamel and white and red pastes. Inner: gilt, ?bassine?, polished. D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minutes and seconds divisions, Arabic 15 minute/seconds numerals. Gold ?beetle & poker? hour and minute hands, blued steel center seconds hand. M. 73 mm, gilt brass, full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, plain three-arm balance, single-footed cock pierced and engraved with leaf decoration, military trophy and warrior profile at the base, silver regulation disc, stop lever at 8 o'clock. Movement signed. Diam. 105 mm. Property of a European Collector


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image
Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-55

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

This painting illustrates a story from James Thomson?s popular poems "The Seasons" dating from 1726?30. The rural lovers Palemon and Lavinia appear in Thomson?s "Autumn"; they are adapted from the Biblical story of Ruth and Boaz. Palemon, a gentleman, professes his love for the country girl Lavinia, in a harvest-time setting. Thomson?s sentimental fantasy of rural romance was particularly attractive to a generation brought up on the ideals of Sensibility. The poem that accompanies this scene is as follows: And are thou then Acastos' dear remains? She whom my restless Gratitude has sought// So long in vain, O Heav'ns! the very frame The soften'd Image of my Noble Friend.

William Story Working in Red Lion Street, London and died in 1784. A musical clock by him is in the British Museum.