Lot 136

Vauchez à Paris, 40 mm, 46 g, circa 1780
A fine, small gold enamel verge pocket watch
Case: 18k pink gold/enamel/paste. Dial: enamel, paste-set. Movm.: full plate movement, chain/fusee, three-arm brass balance.
The back shows a very finely painted enamel medallion on translucent pink-coloured ground in a paste frame: a young girl at the altar or love, with a pair of turtle doves at her feet. Around the medallion is a wide sablé gold ground with applied translucent enamel leaf scrolls and paste decoration.
French watchmaker Vauchez (Vaucher!) worked in Paris around 1800 and was probably a descendant of Daniel Vaucher. Daniel Vaucher was born in Fleurier and moved to Paris in 1760, where he became a master watchmaker. His wife and 6 children stayed in Fleurier; the children later followed their father to Paris. Jonas-Frédéric Vaucher, Jean-Henri-David Vaucher, François Vaucher, Jean-Jacques Vaucher, Samuel Vaucher and Isabelle-Salomé Vaucher became watchmakers themselves and the wonderful watches the family created were usually signed with "Vauchez en la Cité". Quite possibly an "r" was here mistaken for a "z".
Source: http://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Vauchez, as of 09/21/2011

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