Swiss

AN EXTREMELY RARE GOLD, ENAMEL AND PEARL-SET QUARTER REPEATING AUTOMATA WATCH WITH JACQUEMARTS MADE FOR THE CHINESE MARKET CIRCA 1810

• Movement: gilded full plate, cylinder escapement, plain flat three-arm brass balance, repeating on a bell mounted within the movement backplate
• Dial: white enamel, Arabic numerals, outer minute ring, surrounded by a polychrome enamel painted scene depicting a mountainous landscape with a lake in the foreground, applied vari-coloured gold foreground scene with automata depicting water flowing towards a turning water wheel whilst a fisherman catches a fish, his arm raising and lowering a fishing rod with a fish at the end of the line, the top of the dial with two vari-coloured gold Jacquemarts figures each appearing to strike a bell in unison with the watch's repeating work, against a deep blue enamel sky
• Case: gold, front and back with split-pearl-set bezels, the band with stylised dot and dart engraved decoration, case back with restored polychrome enamel painting depicting a landscape scene, a castle to the background and a farmer with cows and a dog in the river to the foreground, two small pushers to the right hand case side for opening front and back covers, switch beneath bezel at 11 o'clock for selecting automata, fixed inner gold domed cuvette decoratively engraved with flowers and foliage and pierced for sound emission, apertures for winding automata and going trains, indistinct case maker's mark to inside back cover
diameter 58mm

Provenance:
Sotheby's, The Palace Collections of Egypt, March 1954, lot 480