Important Collector's, Watches, Wrist...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 15, 2000

LOT 383

Benedict Fürstenfelder, Friedberg, circa 1740.Fine, petite sonnerie striking, quarter repeating, silver pair-cased repoussé coach watch with alarm and calendar.

CHF 30,000 - 35,000

USD 17,000 - 20,000

Sold: CHF 39,100

C. Outer: double-body chagrin covered. Inner: double-body silver, the bezel pierced and chased with foliage and military trophies, the back repoussé scene, depicting the Battle of Vienna, four repoussé busts on the border, two of men and two of women, one with exposed breasts, alternated with pierced and engraved foliage. D. Silver champlevé with Roman numerals and outer Arabic minute ring with arched divisions, center revolving alarm setting disc, two apertures at 12 o?clock for months with indcation of the number of days in a given month, another at 3 o?clock for days of the month. Blued-steel Louis XIV hands. M. Hinged gilt-brass full plate, with pierced and engraved gilt brass pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring, gilt brass English style cock, pierced and engraved with two masks en face and foliage. Pull wind quarter repeating, striking and alarm on a bell, with independent trains for quarters and hours, both with engravedgilt brass fixed barrels and revolving arbors, a lever for silence/striking.Signed on the movement.Diam. 112 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 4 - 01

Notes

The repoussé scene shows the Battle of Vienna, between the forces from the West, led by Prince Eugène de Savoie-Carignan, known as 'Prince Eugène', and the Turkish forces, led by Kara Mustapha, in 1683.Benedict Fürstenfelder (died 1754) of Aichach (Eickstadt) and Friedberg.Friedberg watchmakers specialized in the production of repeating and striking watches. From the beginning of the 18th century, they were making watches and coach watches with quarter, half quarter and even minute repeating mechanisms and selling them all over Europe. The cases, often of very high quality, were produced in Augsburg and the movements were made in the style of the country for which they were destined. Some of them were signed by their makers, some bear signatures of eminent Frenchr English makers (perhaps at their request, when they were retailing them), still others bear the signature of their makers, written backwards, together with the names of cities in which they were intended to be sold. Until the recent discovery of a large quantity of ebauches, blancs and completed movements which had never been cased, and their study by serious specialists such as Sebastian Whitestone, these watches were wrongly attributed to unrecorded makers from different European countries.