Lot 173

Fres Veigneur

An impressive Geneva gold enamel verge pocket watch, studded with half pearls. The watch comes with a matching gold enamel chatelaine

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This high-value ensemble of remarkable quality consists of a pocket watch and its chatelaine; both are richly decorated with enamelling and half pearls. The back of the case shows a painted gallant scene in a rural idyll, inspired by the work of the Swiss painter Angelika Kauffmann (1741-1807). The background has a radial engine-turned pattern and cobalt blue enamelling. The painted scene is framed by decorative half pearls and a golden background with white champlevé flowers. The bezels are decorated with a double row of half pearls on both sides. The corresponding chatelaine has three parts with ornamental enamel plaques and seed pearls. An enamelled key is attached as well as a signet and two pendants; length 250 mm.
Provenance: Sotheby's London, 19th October, 1964, Lot 89.

Between 1770 and 1796 Isaac and Jean Marc Veigneur had a manufactory which produced high quality musical pocket watches and automatons with repetition as well as skeleton watches.
From 1796 to 1802 they were in partnership with Louis Ceret, one of the two directors of the "Manufacture Royale de Montres à Ferney" founded by the philosopher Voltaire. During this period the company traded under the name "Veigneur Frères & Louis Ceret".