Lot 97

Bazile-Charles Le Roy

Montre Médaillon à Tact

An important gold and enamel "Montre Médaillon à Tact" studded with large aquamarines and pearls; a pocket watch gifted by King of Westphalia, Jérôme Bonaparte (1784-1860), Napoleon Bonaparte’s youngest brother and sovereign of Westphalia from1807 to 1813, to the House of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg; with concealed enamelled engraving "Donnée par le Roi" (presented by the king) and a silver and aquamarine watch chain added at a later date. The watch was passed on through several generations in the family in a direct line to the present owner.

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"Forme Collier" case by Tavernier. Front and back with lavish radial engine-turned case decoration, translucent powder-blue enamelling, revolving front lid with applied diamond-studded arrow pointer "sous émail" indicating the hours. Case band with lustrous, aquamarine touch studs and pearls.
"Montre Médaillon à Tact" - Breguet was the first maker to come up with the design for this kind of watch - he sold the first one early in 1799 to Madame Betancourt, the wife of his best friend. He continued producing the watches in different variations, some with quite large touch pieces (like this watch) and some with small ones. The price for these watches that Breguet created for the wealthiest of his customers was between 10,000 and 15,000 francs. This was a truly enormous sum of money in the early 19th century, nevertheless the watches were highly sought after at the time. One of the reasons for their popularity was that at the time it was considered quite unseemly to read the time in public; these expensive pieces made it possible to tell the time without taking the watch out of one’s pocket. Breguet remained almost the only one to create this kind of watch; only Le Roy Horloger de S.A.I et R. Madame à Paris (Bazile-Charles Le Roy (1765-1839)) and very few others followed in his footsteps. Le Roy created a number of timepieces of this type - the most elaborate one for the Prince of Hesse, which had 17k diamond buttons for reading the time in the dark and is now owned by the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. The watch was made around 1810; it bears the number 3191 and is decorated with engine-turned pattern and enamel.
Our comparable watch, no. 3165, bears the engraved and enamelled dedication "Donné par le Roi" (presented by the king), refering to Jérôme Bonaparte (1784-1860), Napoleon Bonaparte’s youngest brother and sovereign of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813. According to the current owner, the watch was presented to Ernestine Luise Countess von Pückler-Limburg (1784-1824), wife of Count and later Prince Georg Wilhelm Ludwig zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (1775-1855), around 1807. From the mid-1790s onwards, Georg was entrusted with diplomatic missions by his house in Paris. These primarily dealt with compensation issues connected to the mediatisation of his father's territories. In August 1806 he tried to offer Napoleon the lands of his house as fief to avoid the mediatisation. In 1807 he entered the service of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, in a position of honorary senior equerry and orderly officer. Due to the loss of the territories on the left bank of the Rhine, the House of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Virneburg changed its name to Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg in 1812/13. In 1816, with the death of his father, Prince Georg took over leadership of his house.

Bazile-Charles Le Roy (1765-1839) was an ingenious watchmaker who created high quality pocket watches and naval chronometers. He was among the first in France to ever use the lever escapement in his watches. He created some watches in the style of Lepine early in his career, but soon drew his inspiration from Breguet and his bridge calibers.
In 1805 Bazile-Charles Le Roy was appointed "maker to Madame Mère de l'Empereur". In a close relationship with Napoleon and his family, Bazile-Charles produced clocks and watches of supreme quality; among them were traditional clocks as well as decimal clocks, Montres à tact or timepieces with sonnerie.
At the time when the French Revolution ended, the house Le Roy was known as one of the leading makers of pendulum and travel clocks in Paris; the majority of the clocks was produced for the officers of Napoleon’s campaigns. Bazile-Charles Le Roy was soon appointed "maker to the imperial court" of Napoleon I, who had just been crowned in the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris; also, of course "maker to Madame Mère de l'Empereur" (Napoleon’s mother), "maker to the King of Westphalia" (Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother), and even "maker to Princess Pauline" (Napoleon’s sister).
The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore owns a "Montre Médaillon à Tact" decorated with red enamel and studded with diamonds and pearls. It was made between 1805 and 1809 for Napoleon’s mother Maria Letizia Bonaparte (1750-1836), who had lost her sight. The watch was made by Bazile-Charles Le Roy (1765-1839) and is signed "LE ROY Hgr. DE S.A. Ile ET Rle. MADAME A PARIS 2691". The case number is 2896.