While Adrien Philippe generally took to court those who used his patented improved stem-winding design (French patent No. 1317 of April 22, 1845), it appears that Czapek had a free hand to employ it. In his small book about watchmaking, Czapek even advertised his use of this system. The enamel portrait is attributable to the Genevese artist Charles-Louis Glardon (1825-1887), after a photograph by well-known Parisian portrait photographer Etienne Carjat. Charles-Edmond Chojecki (1822-1899) Edmund Franciszek Maurycy (called Charles-Edmond) Chojecki was born in 1822. From an artistocratic Polish family fallen on hard times, he was a poet and journalist. At the age of 23, his opposition to the Russian occupant forced him to flee to Paris, where he found himself, in 1845, part of a large group of Polish refugees. In Paris, Chojecki became friendly with other writers sympathetic to nationalist causes, as well as a great number of artists and writers, among them Frederic Chopin, George Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo and Lamartine. Chojecki?s adventures at the time were not just intellectual: a little girl was born on September 14, 1847 to a Polish lady who discreetly abandoned the baby to him. He officially recognized her, under the name of Marie Chojecka, and placed her with a foster family. Chojecki?s fierce opposition to the policies of the Prince-President, the future Napoleon III, forced him to go into exile once again. At the urging of his friends Hugo and Lamartine he left for Switzerland and Italy. At the end of 1849, he was in Egypt. There, he met a young Armenian named Nubar (1825-1899). Nubar had been educated in Vevey, Switzerland, and then in France. One of his uncles, who had been Minister of Commerce and Foreign Affairs under Mohammed Ali (1769-1849), had invited him to Egypt, where the young man became secretary of several Pashas: first Mohammed Ali, then Ibrahim, and finally Abbas Pasha (1813-1854), when the latter began his reign in 1848. After successful diplomatic negotiations in London, Nubar was made bey. During this first journey to Egypt, Charles-Edmond met Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), who wrote about the meeting in his "Voyage en Orient". Pursuing his eventful career, Charles-Edmond volunteered to fight in the Crimean War in 1853. He recounted his adventures in Bulgaria and at the battle of Sebastopol (1854-55) in his book "Souvenirs d?un dépaysé". Subsequently, Charles-Edmond became the secretary of Jerome, Prince Napoleon, senator and minister (1822-1891), who was the son of Jerome Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon I and cousin of Napoleon III. When Prince Napoleon undertook an expedition to the North Pole, he took his secretary along as historiographer. Charles-Edmond published a handsome and richly illustrated 800-page volume upon his return to Paris. "Voyages dans les mers du nord", was published in 1857, and "Les Mers Polaires", a Jules Verne-style play written a generation before Jules Verne - based on his impressions of the expedition. Chojecki became a French citizen and was offered the position of librarian at the "Ministère des Colonies", then, on January 15, 1862, that of "bibliothécaire adjoint" of the Senate. He was later to become librarian of the Senate, and in 1876, "bibliothécaire en chef" of that institution. It was around 1860 that Charles-Edmond had his first success as a playwright. Several plays were produced in succession, and were very well received. At the request of Ismail Pasha, viceroy of Egypt, Chojecki returned to Cairo in 1866 for the second time. Following the discussions between the two on that occasion, Chojecki was made "Commissaire" of the Egyptian Pavilion at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition. At the same time, Nubar Pasha was negotiating, with the Sultan of Constantinople, Egypt?s autonomy, which was to be finally granted in 1867. A decree of 1866 conferred upon him the title of Khedive, title second only to that of Sultan in Ottoman hierarchy. Charles-Edmond Chojecki, as "Commissaire Général du Pavillon de l?Egypte", was among the first official representatives of the proud new country of Egypt. In commemoration of this historic moment, he wrote "L?Egypte à l?Exposition universelle" (Paris, 1867). Many happy events followed: Charles-Edmond?s daughter was married in 1865, then he himself married, in a quiet ceremony in 1866, the woman who had been his companion for over 15 years, Julie Friedrud. Still, he did not forget his origins, writing "La Bohême et les Tchèques" and "La Pologne captive et ses trois poètes". Alongside these works which helped to familiarize his adopted country with his native Poland, he wrote imaginative novels such as "Alkhadar", written in Polish and quite popular in its day. Other novels were: "Zéphyrin Cazavan en Egypte" (1879) ; "Harald" ; "Le trésor du Guèbre" (1885) ; "Paul Rochebert" (1892) ; "Jean d?Hasp" (1892) ; "La Maison J. R. Cossemant" ; "Le neveu du comte Sérédine" . He wrote numerous plays: "Le Dompteur", "Le Fantôme rose", "Elsy", and "La Bûcheronne" (1889) to name only a few. In his small office filled with dusty boxes, he was visited by many illustrious personalities of the day : Jules Claretie (1840-1913) of the "Académie Française" ; the brothers Goncourt, Edmond (1822-1896) and Jules (1830-1870); Victor Schoelcher (1804-1893) who decreed the abolition of slavery (1848); Marcellin Berthelot (1827-1907) chemist, philosopher and politician, member of the "Académie Française" and the "Académie des Sciences", "Ministre de l?Instruction publique" (1886) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1895) ; Albert Sorel (1842-1906) member of the "Académie Française"; Charles Marie Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894) poet and member of the "Académie Française", and François Rémusat, (1797-1875), scholar, politician, and also member of the "Académie Française". Chojecki, who had been named "Officier de la Légion d?honneur", retired in 1896, and died on December 1, 1899 in Bellevue, Seine-et-Oise. François Czapek was a Polish émigré who arrived in Switzerland in 1832 after the unsuccessful Polish insurrection against Russia. On May 1, 1839, Antoni Patek and Franciszek Czapek established a business in Geneva under the name of Patek & Czapek. Czapek furnished the tools (and probably some early machinery) and was responsible for production. Paragraph 5 of the agreement stated that Czapek would be paid 100 francs at the end of each month in addition to his share of the profit. The partnership lasted 6 years, during which some exceptional watches were produced. After the dissolution, Patek established Patek, Philippe & Co. with his new partners Philippe and Gostkowski, and Czapek founded "Czapek et Cie", also with a new partner, Juliusz Gruzewski. Cza-pek?s new company did well. Gruzewski was a per-sonal friend of Napoleon III, and Czapek quickly became watchmaker to the court of the Emperor. He had a factory in Geneva, a shop in Warsaw, and another in Paris. He wrote a small book about watches and watchmaking in which he announced that he was working on a larger volume, but he unfortunately died before publishing it. It is interesting to note that Czapek's early watches incorporate Philippe's patented sliding pi-nion winding mechanism. In his book Czapek states that in his shop he used only this design. The largest serial number on a Czapek watch we have seen is 10705, and the smallest one is 1230, which leads us to conclude that he began numbering at 1000. We thus believe that Czapek's total production was about 9,000 watches. Among about 50 watches made or fi-nished by Czapek that we have seen, certain ones are of out-standing quality. This comes as no surprise, for if he were not an outstanding watchmaker, Patek would have never formed a partnership with him. The Patek, Philippe Collection includes Czapek's regulator clock with a free, double-wheel detent esca-pement. The King Farouk Collection had an outstanding gold and enamel cigar case combined with a watch, made for the Great Exhibition of 1851 (sold at Antiquorum, April, 1993), now exhibited in the Patek Philippe Museum.