102nd Auction
2020/6/29
Lot 250
Fretres Huaut Pinxerunt à Berlin, Movement No. 835, 46 mm, 103 g, circa 1700/1750
A gold and enamel verge pocket watch of museum quality, set in a richly decorated, gold protective case: "The Holy Family with Allegorical Depiction of Sin and Salvation", after a painting by Giovanni Battista Salvi (known as Sassoferrato), (1609-1685)
Case: protective case - 22k gold, rock crystal, diamond thumb piece. Inner case - gold frame and polychrome enamel. Dial: enamel. Movm.: full plate movement, signed Daniel Paillet London, chain/fusee, three-arm brass balance.
This gold and enamel pocket watch is signed "Fretres Huaut Pinxerunt"; its back is decorated with a polychrome painting of the Holy Family with Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and his foster father Saint Joseph. Joseph points his right forefinger towards the sky, where the clouds disperse and a cross appears surrounded by a bright light – indicating the predestination of Jesus Christ. Mary with the baby in her arms looks to her right at a globe with a serpent coiled around it. The serpent holds an apple in her mouth and represents evil and the original sin. Mary, Mother of God is regarded as victor over all wordly sin. As she is destined to be the Mother of God, she remains untainted by the original sin. Another portrait of Mary with the baby Jesus is shown in the centre of the dial surrounded by a white enamel chapter ring with Roman hours.
The case is ornamented with four vignettes showing castles and farm buildings in wooded alpine lake settings; they are separated by yellow scrolls on blue ground. The signature plaque "Fretres Huaut Pinxerunt" sits at 6 o’clock. The inside is painted with the figure of a hiker dressed in red near an alpine lake with an island; the motif was probably taken from a painting by Dutch painter Paul Bril (1556-1626).
The cases painted by the Huaut brothers on enamel were among the finest examples of their kind from the Geneva School and were not only highly valued when originally made, but remained as art treasures in the centuries that followed.
Pierre was the founder of the Huaud dynasty and born in 1612 in Geneva as the son of French goldsmith Jean Huaud. He settled in Geneva in 1630 and three of his 11 children became famous enamelists like their father: Pierre II (1647-1698), Jean-Pierre (1655-1723) and Ami (1657-1724). The brothers were most likely trained by their father and worked with him; Pierre II started his own business around 1680. Jean-Pierre and Ami became partners in 1682 and were appointed painters to the Prussian court in 1686, when they moved to Berlin and started working for Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg (1620-1688).
Among their most well-known works are: Diana and Actaeon, The Judgement of Paris, The Holy Family, St. John the Baptist, The Nativity, The Adoration of the Shepherds.
Huguenot maker Daniel Paillet fled France for England and is recorded around 1749 at Frith Street in London; from 1754 he worked in Soho.
A gold and enamel verge pocket watch of museum quality, set in a richly decorated, gold protective case: "The Holy Family with Allegorical Depiction of Sin and Salvation", after a painting by Giovanni Battista Salvi (known as Sassoferrato), (1609-1685)
Case: protective case - 22k gold, rock crystal, diamond thumb piece. Inner case - gold frame and polychrome enamel. Dial: enamel. Movm.: full plate movement, signed Daniel Paillet London, chain/fusee, three-arm brass balance.
This gold and enamel pocket watch is signed "Fretres Huaut Pinxerunt"; its back is decorated with a polychrome painting of the Holy Family with Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and his foster father Saint Joseph. Joseph points his right forefinger towards the sky, where the clouds disperse and a cross appears surrounded by a bright light – indicating the predestination of Jesus Christ. Mary with the baby in her arms looks to her right at a globe with a serpent coiled around it. The serpent holds an apple in her mouth and represents evil and the original sin. Mary, Mother of God is regarded as victor over all wordly sin. As she is destined to be the Mother of God, she remains untainted by the original sin. Another portrait of Mary with the baby Jesus is shown in the centre of the dial surrounded by a white enamel chapter ring with Roman hours.
The case is ornamented with four vignettes showing castles and farm buildings in wooded alpine lake settings; they are separated by yellow scrolls on blue ground. The signature plaque "Fretres Huaut Pinxerunt" sits at 6 o’clock. The inside is painted with the figure of a hiker dressed in red near an alpine lake with an island; the motif was probably taken from a painting by Dutch painter Paul Bril (1556-1626).
The cases painted by the Huaut brothers on enamel were among the finest examples of their kind from the Geneva School and were not only highly valued when originally made, but remained as art treasures in the centuries that followed.
Pierre was the founder of the Huaud dynasty and born in 1612 in Geneva as the son of French goldsmith Jean Huaud. He settled in Geneva in 1630 and three of his 11 children became famous enamelists like their father: Pierre II (1647-1698), Jean-Pierre (1655-1723) and Ami (1657-1724). The brothers were most likely trained by their father and worked with him; Pierre II started his own business around 1680. Jean-Pierre and Ami became partners in 1682 and were appointed painters to the Prussian court in 1686, when they moved to Berlin and started working for Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg (1620-1688).
Among their most well-known works are: Diana and Actaeon, The Judgement of Paris, The Holy Family, St. John the Baptist, The Nativity, The Adoration of the Shepherds.
Huguenot maker Daniel Paillet fled France for England and is recorded around 1749 at Frith Street in London; from 1754 he worked in Soho.
Sold
estimated
25.000—50.000 €
Price realized
28.800 €