Lot 116

Gregson, Hr. du Roy à Paris, Movement No. 3012 Bt., Case No. 253, 51 mm, 94 g, circa 1780
A charming French gold enamel verge pocket watch
Case: 18k gold, enamel. Dial: enamel. Movm.: full plate movement, chain/fusee, three-arm brass balance.
An extremely charming thin pocket watch of outstanding quality; the back is decorated with cobalt blue enameling on engine-turned pattern and a central medallion with en grisaille painting on pink-coloured ground: Cupid holding an arrow of love, surrounded by rose petals. The bezels on both sides are decorated with opalescent blue enamel pearls and gold paillon circles within a white border.
The suffix "Bt." almost certainly refers to the title "par Brevet", meaning "By Warrant".
A very similar pocket watch is held in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and is further illustrated and described in "Watches their history, decoration and mechanism" by G. H. Baillie, London 1929, plate XXXI, No. 7, p. 130.
Jean-Pierre Gregson originally came from England. In 1776 he was appointed watchmaker to the king in Paris. He was one of the first watchmakers of his time to use the Lépine calibre. In 1787 Gregson founded a watch manufacture in Braille.
Source: Tardy "Dictionnaire des Horlogers Francais", Paris 1972, p. 272.