ROUND FOLIOT ENAMELLED WATCH from the 17th century - Lot 70

ROUND FOLIOT ENAMELLED WATCH from the 17th century Very rare round watch, entirely enameled, using the painted enamel on gold technique. Ring-shaped dial with Roman numerals, center decorated with flowers on a blue background, time indicated by a steel hand. Glass-set hinged bezel. The back of the basin is adorned with a miniature of a woman with beautiful curly hair, a baroque pearl in her ear, wearing a pink dress, the sleeves held by clasps, the oval portrait circumscribed by a rolled ribbon. The basin is bordered by a garland of white and yellow flowers in relief, within which are four cartouches with landscapes of castles or ruins in shades of red or pink. The inner base of the basin is adorned with a portrait of a man with a fine moustache, wearing a red cape and a white command sash in saltire, and wearing an empanelled helmet. Movement with round brass plate, diameter 27 mm, turned baluster pillars, with circular foliot, chain, escapement with meeting wheel, endless screw, openworked cock engraved with foliage, winding from the back. The plate is signed Choudens et Chavanes. Gold, brass, steel, enamel, silver. Width: 35 mm Louis XIV period, second half of the 17th century Choudens watchmaker in Geneva with his family in 1690 (wear from rubbing on the back of the basin, accidents and missing parts at the base of the striking plate, small missing parts on one side, old restoration in particular striking plate and its base with a piece of gilded brass or silver) This delightful little enamel watch is a scientific and artistic testimony to the age of Louis XIV. The enameling technique is extremely delicate and precise, and there is no room for error in its production, not to mention the clockwork, which measures time in such a small space. The workmanship and style of this watch case (notably "the brilliance of the warm colors and the subtlety of the modelling employed in small touches") can be compared, with certainty, to the works of the HUAUDs (here Jean-Pierre HUAUD - 1655-1723), who excelled in the manufacture of these cases commissioned by watchmakers all over Europe. The portraits were inspired by engravings after the painters of the time, and here we recognize the touch of Nocret, Beaubrun or Mignard, for both the female and male portraits. These two portraits are reminiscent of the proud Roger de Bussy-Rabutin and Gabrielle de Toulougeon, or Madame de Sévigné, or La Calprenède and Madeleine de Scudéry, the heyday of heroic and gallant novels... Reference : To be compared with similar case models preserved at the Musée du Louvre (plate signed Christianus), at the Musées La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle (plate signed Duhamel), Musée d'Art et d'Horlogerie de Genève and other museums (Ecouen, British Museum, Basel...), or rare examples sold at auction. Bibliography : CARDINAL and MERCIER. Watchmaking museums La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle. BNP Paribas 1993 GUYE and MICHEL. Mesures du temps et de l'espace. Office du livre, 1970. HAYARD. Masterpieces of ancient watchmaking. Musée Paul Dupuy Toulouse. Somogy, 2004. TARDY. Dictionary of French Watchmakers. Paris 1971.