Collector's Pocket Watches, Wristwatc...

Grand Havana Room, New York, Sep 20, 2001

LOT 130

The Reading LessonBaillon, Paris, circa 1770.Fine and interesting, 20K gold and enamel pocket watch.

USD 3,500 - 5,000

C. two-body, "Louis XV", the back with a finely painted on enamel scene with two barefoot children reading to a seated lady, while their mother looks on, possibly after François Boucher (1703-1770), the bezel with four enamel flowers against an engraved straight line pattern. D. white enamel, Roman numerals, outer minute ring with Arabic five-minute markers. Gold "Louis XV" hands. M. 35.8 mm ø, hinged, gilt brass full plate with square baluster pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, plain seel balance, continental cock.Signed on the movement.Diam. 44 mm


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3 - 6 - 17
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 6 - 01

Notes

Baillon, Jean Baptiste III Albert (D. 1772)Received Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire de la Reine in 1727, Premier Valet de Chambre de la Reine (before 1748), then Premier Valet de Chambre and Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire de la Dauphine Marie-Antoinette in 1770. He was established in the Place Dauphine in 1738 and in the rue Dauphine after 1751. Jean-Baptiste III Baillon was one of the most important clockmakers of the eighteenth century, in terms of the extent of his business, and an extremely wealthy man. Berthoud described hiestablishment as: "the finest and richest Clock Shop" and said that his house in Saint-Germain was "a kind of Factory. It is full of Workmen continually laboring for him... for he alone makes a large proportion of the Clocks and Watches (of Paris)".