Pendant watch: a significant, unique pair of gold and enamel pendant watches, Blois 1640/1650

292-4294  Pendant watch: a significant, unique pair of gold and enamel pendant watches, Blois 1640/1650

1. Ca. Ø 33 mm, ca. 34 g, gold, high carat, probably 20 carat, case fully enamelled, top and bottom featuring elaborate, highly detailed mythological scenes; the reverse of the bowl depicts ‘THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS’ and the lid shows the ‘ALLEGORY OF JUSTICE’. The rim of the case features four cartouches with landscape scenes. The source material consists of engravings by Michel Dorigny; the images themselves are thought to be by Simon Vouet (1590–1649). The black bezel is known only from three cases from Blois; it features a very fine, early verge movement with vase-shaped pillars, a two-arm balance wheel without a hairspring, a mainplate signed ‘Laurier Blois’, an enamelled dial and gold hands. It is in an outstanding state of preservation, with minimal cracking around the edge. François Laurier was recorded in Blois around 1650 and died in 1663. Blois enamel clocks from around 1650 with movements from that period are museum pieces. Many of these cases, which were already prized as works of art at the time, contain 18th-century movements. The clock presented here is an original from Blois dating from around 1640/50, a museum-quality collector’s item. Comparable clocks: 1. (https://www.cortrie.de/go/xqG), 2. (https://www.cortrie.de/go/N9J), 3. (https://www.cortrie.de/go/Xl1). 2. Case with absolutely identical dimensions and of absolutely identical construction, ca. Ø33mm, ca. 34g, gold, high carat, presumably 20K, case fully enamelled; the top and bottom feature elaborate, highly detailed mythological scenes, whilst the inside of the case shows an idealised landscape with a farmhouse and a fisherman in the river, and the inside of the caseback depicts a riverside landscape with trees and a village in the foothills. The reverse of the bowl depicts ‘Ceres, Bacchus and Venus during the grape harvest, watched by a lynx’, whilst the lid shows the scene ‘Ceres, Bacchus and Venus celebrating wildly’. The rim of the case features four cartouches with landscape scenes. The designs are based on engravings by Michel Dorigny; the accompanying images are thought to be by Simon Vouet (1590–1649). The movement is an early verge movement with vase-shaped pillars, a two-arm balance wheel without a hairspring, a mainplate signed ‘François Berger, Paris’, an enamelled dial and iron hands; the watch is in an outstanding state of preservation. NOTE: To the best of our knowledge, this is the only known pair of Blois enamel clocks. Equally remarkable is the fact that both clocks still possess their original movements from that period; the third aspect of their extreme rarity is the size of the clocks, which differs significantly from the usual size of known Blois enamel clocks!