Vaucher, Fleurier

A VERY FINE GOLD, ENAMEL AND SPLIT-PEARL-SET DUPLEX WATCH MADE FOR THE CHINESE MARKET CIRCA 1840

• Movement: gilded partially skeletonised plates finely engraved with scrolling foliage against a stippled ground, similarly decorated barrel, Chinese duplex escapement, three-arm balance with blued steel screwed weights, glazed cuvette with apertures for winding and hand-set, unsigned
• Dial: white enamel, Roman numerals, blued steel hands and centre seconds, outer ring for minutes/seconds with Arabic quarter hour divisions, signed Vaucher, Fleurier
• Case: gold, the back with polychrome enamel painted bouquet of flowers, a pair of doves at the centre all against an opaque black enamel background, split-pearl-set bezels and bow, the band and pendant decorated with geometric opaque black and white champlevé enamel, pusher through pendant to release case back and reveal the glazed cuvette
diameter 53mm

Provenance:
In her book, Swiss Timepiece Makers 1775-1975 (Phoenix 1997, Vol. II, p.V-23), Kathleen Pritchard cites an article from the Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie (Vol. IV, No. 8, Feb. 1880) in which three Vaucher firms from Fleurier are noted to have been producing Chinese duplex watches during the first half 19th century, these were: Claude & Cesar Vaucher, Charles Henri Vaucher and Vaucher Frères. As found in the present lot, the finest of these watches invariably had highly decoratively engraved gilded movements and vibrant polychrome enamel painted cases.