90th Auction
2014/11/15
Lot 414
Bovet Frères à Fleurier, Movement No. 4061, Height 185 mm, circa 1840
An extremely rare half hour / hour repeating carriage clock with enamel decoration, hour self strike and alarm - for the Chinese market
Case: ormulu, the front and back side with applied enamel medallions, polychrome painted: summer flowers on a green ground, engraved and opaque enamelled foliage decor, "Anglaise" case, rectangular base and cornice, the corners decorated with finely cast 3/4 columns with twisted flutes and acanthus bases and stylized Corinthian capitals, facet glazed on all sides and the top, the angels decorated with four flower finials, lavishly engraved, waved handle on top, four conical feet, button for repeating mechanism. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, centre seconds, subsidiary chapter ring with Roman numerals for alarm, signed, blued trefoil-shaped hands. Movm.: rectangular brass full plate movement, signed, gilt, keywind, 2 hammers / 1 bell / 1 gong, solid circular movement pillars, 3 barrels for going train, hour strike and alarm, fine platform with lever escapement, monometallic screw balance with screwed blued weights.
Edouard Bovet
He was born in Fleurier, Switzerland in 1797, son of a local master-watchmaker, Jean-Frédéric Bovet. Edouard had four brothers, Frédéric, Alphonse, Gustave, Charles-Henri, and a sister, Caroline. In1814 Edouard Bovet is against Neuchâtel's return to Prussian rule after the fall of Napoleon. After his apprenticeship, he leaves Fleurier with Alphonse and Frédéric to work as a watchmaker in London -then the centre of Europe's watch trade and manufacture. 1818 Edouard Bovet's employer, the Magniac company, sends him to Canton, the only Chinese port open to Western trade. He leaves England on the East India merchantman, Orwell, on April 20, arriving in Canton via the Cape of Good Hope on August 16. Delighted, he wrote to his brother in Switzerland, enthusing about the market potential and asking him to send more watches, but only of the very best quality, since this was where the demand lay and there was no difficulty about payment. Since 1822 Bovet, now living in Canton, founds a partnership company for the China watch trade with his two brothers in London, Alphonse and Frédéric, and his third brother Gustave, watchmaker in Fleurier. The charter of the company is drawn up in London on May 1. Business booms, and the company quickly transfers production to Fleurier.
An extremely rare half hour / hour repeating carriage clock with enamel decoration, hour self strike and alarm - for the Chinese market
Case: ormulu, the front and back side with applied enamel medallions, polychrome painted: summer flowers on a green ground, engraved and opaque enamelled foliage decor, "Anglaise" case, rectangular base and cornice, the corners decorated with finely cast 3/4 columns with twisted flutes and acanthus bases and stylized Corinthian capitals, facet glazed on all sides and the top, the angels decorated with four flower finials, lavishly engraved, waved handle on top, four conical feet, button for repeating mechanism. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, centre seconds, subsidiary chapter ring with Roman numerals for alarm, signed, blued trefoil-shaped hands. Movm.: rectangular brass full plate movement, signed, gilt, keywind, 2 hammers / 1 bell / 1 gong, solid circular movement pillars, 3 barrels for going train, hour strike and alarm, fine platform with lever escapement, monometallic screw balance with screwed blued weights.
Edouard Bovet
He was born in Fleurier, Switzerland in 1797, son of a local master-watchmaker, Jean-Frédéric Bovet. Edouard had four brothers, Frédéric, Alphonse, Gustave, Charles-Henri, and a sister, Caroline. In1814 Edouard Bovet is against Neuchâtel's return to Prussian rule after the fall of Napoleon. After his apprenticeship, he leaves Fleurier with Alphonse and Frédéric to work as a watchmaker in London -then the centre of Europe's watch trade and manufacture. 1818 Edouard Bovet's employer, the Magniac company, sends him to Canton, the only Chinese port open to Western trade. He leaves England on the East India merchantman, Orwell, on April 20, arriving in Canton via the Cape of Good Hope on August 16. Delighted, he wrote to his brother in Switzerland, enthusing about the market potential and asking him to send more watches, but only of the very best quality, since this was where the demand lay and there was no difficulty about payment. Since 1822 Bovet, now living in Canton, founds a partnership company for the China watch trade with his two brothers in London, Alphonse and Frédéric, and his third brother Gustave, watchmaker in Fleurier. The charter of the company is drawn up in London on May 1. Business booms, and the company quickly transfers production to Fleurier.
Sold
estimated
6.500—8.500 €
Price realized
9.700 €