Important Watches Wristwatches, and C...

The Furama Hotel Hong Kong, Victoriana Room, Jun 05, 2000

LOT 365

Gaudron à Paris, case enamelled by Les Frères Huaud, circa 1690.Fine and rare gilt brass single hand Louis XIV oignon with central winding and enamel cock.

HKD 120,000 - 144,000

USD 15,000 - 18,000

Sold: HKD 126,500

C. double-body gilt brass ?oignon?, entirely enamelled, the back with a painted scene, depicting a Pietà. The bezel and border of the back, each with four landscape vignettes, interspersed with sepia and yellow panels decorated with ribbon scrolls, signed at 6 o?clock in a cartouche: Les Frères Huaud. D. Gilt brass with Roman numerals on enamel cartouches. Blued steel single hand. M. Hinged gilt brass full plate with Egyptian pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain steel three-arm balnce, short flat balance spring, fine gilt brass Louis XIV cock set with a enamel panel painted with The Virgin and Child.Signed Gaudron on the back plate.Diam. 57 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3 - 17
Movement: * 3
Dial: 3 - 22 - 04

Notes

Jean Pierre and Ami HuaudSons of Pierre Huaud I, partners from 1682 to 1688. They were appointed painters to the Court of Prussia in 1686 and went to Berlin. In 1686, they signed: Les deux frères Huaut Les Jeunes; after 1686: Les Frères Huaud or Les deux frères Huaud with the addition of peintres de son A. E. à Berlin or p.d. V. A. fct à Berlin. They returned to Geneva in 1700 and after that date their signature appeared as Les frères Huaut or Les deux frères Huaut or Peter et Amicus Huaut, they also signed Fratres Huaut. The name is spelt Huaud or Huaut and sometimes Huault.Among their most well-known works are: Diana and Actaeon, The Judgment of Paris, The Holy Family, St. John the Baptist, The Nativity, The Adoration of the Shepherds. Cases painted on copper by the Huaud family are more rarely found than those on gold, which is surprising considering the price of the latter. On copper, the colours are softer and the quality is better than many of those painted on gold.Antoine I GaudronAntoine Gaudron was born circa 1660 and died in Paris on August 3, 1714. Married to Anne Baignoux in 1671, he was the father of Pierre, Antoine II and Marie-Anne who married Guillaume Hubert, merchant goldsmith in Paris and later Marchant-orfèvre de la Reine d?Angleterre (Merchant Goldsmith to the Queen of England) in London.Received as Master at Saint-Germain-des-Prés between 1660 and 1665, then in Paris on June 5, 1675. He was Juré from 1690 to 1692. In 1698 he took his son Pierre as partner to trade in clocks, precious stones, pictures, mirrors, porcelain, bronzes and jewels. They were first established Place Dauphine at La Perle, in 1698, and in 1709 moved to new premises at La Renommée.He died comfortably off, leaving more than 174,000 livres. Technically, he invented remarkable movements with several functions. According to his son Pierre, he made in 1688a ?regulator... which followed equation by means of a curve which raised or lowered the clock?, which would make it the first French equation clock. It is highly probable that this invention, unconfirmed by other evidence, was only partially perfected. Antoine I Gaudron was Charles Le Bon?s best man at his wedding on August 18, 1707, while Pierre Gaudron wrote in his will that Julien Le Roy ?has always showed the greatest gratitude to, and the most sincere admiration for my deceased father?, leaing him the 1688 clock among others. It is possible thatLe Bon and Le Roy were his compagnons, they were certainlyhis pupils.