97th Auction

2018/5/12

Lot 415

Jacobus Nauta, Le(e)uwaerden, Diameter 51 mm, Total Height 15 mm !, 86 g, circa 1685
An exceptionally rare and important "ultra thin" 22k gold pair-cased verge pocket watch with one hand in museum quality - To the best of our knowledge, there is only one other recorded example of a watch from that period with such a slim movement also by Dutch watchmaker Jacobus Nauta, Leeuwarden. It is held at the British Museum in London
Case: outer case - 22k gold, engraved. Inner case - 22k gold, polished. Dial: gold champlevé. Movm.: fine full plate movement, chain/fusee, blued steel ratchet wheel set-up, (early) balance spring, silver regulator disc, three-arm steel balance.
The edge of the plain inner case is tapering to a point to accentuate the slimness of the watch. Split front bezel for the glass, square hinge and loose ring pendant. Outer case with pronounced square hinge, entirely engraved with scrolling foliage, the back centred with a Ducal coat of arms, flanked by heraldic birds with a female mascaron below.
The gold champleve dial with finely matted ground, polished ring with quarter hour divisions and Roman chapters. Centre engraved in high relief with an elaborate floral scrollwork design on a matted ground. Single blued-steel hand.
The ultra-flat full-plate movement only measures 3 millimetres in height between the two fine gilded plates. In between there are four unusually turned and carved pillars; plain balance with spring, superbly pierced and engraved bridge balance cock and similarly elaborated plate retaining the silver regulating disk. Signed on the movement: J. Nauta, Leuwaerden.
The only other recorded example of a watch from the period with such a slim movement is also by Jacobus Nauta, and forms part of the Horological collection at the British Museum (Inventory Number 1958,1201.595). Formerly in the celebrated collection of clocks and watches formed by Courtenay Ilbert (1888 - 1956), it was saved for the Nation (as was the entire collection) in 1958 through a generous donation from Gilbert Edgar, CBE and additional funds provided by the public and Government.
The British Museum watch differs slightly in technical detail, having a worm-and-wheel set-up rather than the ratchet and click employed on this example. The outer case is leather covered with a pique monogram rather than solid engraved gold. (see: https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=241361001&objectId=57070&partId=1#more-views).
The British Museum watch is illustrated and described in Britten’s Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, 7th. Edition, by G.H. Baillie, F.B.H.I, C.Clutton, F.S.A, & C.A.Ilbert, F.B.H.I., E.P.Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1956, p.120, plate 75.
The caption for the illustration reads: "……Thin watches were also made by Quare and others, but this is an almost unique survival." Although it is the case that a few watches from the period have a movement approaching the thinness of the Nauta, it is the incorporation of an (early) balance spring and regulator that distinguishes these watches.
Jacobus Nauta was a famous watchmaker from the Dutch province of Friesland. He was born around 1635 in Leeuwarden, where he was trained as a watchmaker. As early as 1660 he was an independent watchmaker and father of a daughter, as can be seen from church records. In 1685 he married a second time and lived together with his second wife Sara Casteleins from Haarlem in Amsterdam at that time. After a few years Jacobus Nauta returned to Leeuwarden, where he worked as a watchmaker until shortly before his death in 1696. The exact number of his descendants is not known, two of his sons, Gijsbertus Jacobus (about 1674-1756) and Jan Jacobus (about 1668-1742), also became watchmakers.
The coat of arms on the back side of the case belongs to the Frisian family Gemmenig. Sachaeus Gemmenig is recorded as a lawyer in Leeuwarden in 1689.
The coat of arms is illustrated in J. Romijn: Coat of arms book, consisting of 600 coats of arms of Frisian noblemen and other important persons, 1753, p. 23.

Sold

estimated
65.000100.000 €
Price realized
76.900 €