Lot 85

Baptiste Paillard

Äsops Fables

An ornamental Parisian quarter repeating verge pocket watch with striking Repoussé outer case, depicting a selection of fables by Greek story teller Aesop

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Selected fables by the ancient storyteller Aesop are displayed in Repoussé technique:
The central medallion on the back shows the story "The Fox and the Crow". Near the edge are four cartouches with other scenes, such as "The Dog and the Wolf", "The Fighting Cocks and the Eagle" and "A Sow and a Dog". The scenes are separated by openwork baroque-style ornamentation. Other illustrations of animals are shown on the bezel and in the centre of the dial.
By using his animal fables Aesop characterised the behaviour of his fellow men and used his to teach and educate by holding a mirror up to them in which they should see their true self. Human weaknesses he discussed were envy, stupidity, meanness, vanity etc.
The fable on the back is one of Aesop’s most famous stories and intends to warn of flatterery. A crow has found a chunk of cheese and sits on a branch to enjoy the meal, when a fox comes by. The fox would like the cheese for himself and starts flattering the crow, calling it beautiful and king of all birds. Eventually the fox asks the crow to sing for him. Getting careless after the fox’s sweet talking, the crow starts to sing to prove that it has the most beautiful voice of all. By doing this the crow loses the cheese which falls from its beak and is caught by the fox. After eating the cheese, the fox laughs and tells the crow: "Beware of flatterers!"
The models for the fable illustrations are woodcarvings created Bernard Salomon (ca. 1506-ca. 1566) in 1551. Only very little is known about Salomon’s life. His family came from Lyon. He had commissions for the work from Ippolito II. d'Este (1540), Heinrich II. Of France (1548) and Jacques Dalbon, Seigneur de Saint-André (1550). He worked closely with the printer Jean de Tournes, designing and illustrating many books, among them emblem books, documentations as well as scientific and literary works such as the Bible and the Metamorphoses by Ovid.

Relevant literature has only very little information on Parisian watchmaker Baptiste Paillard. He worked around 1750 in Paris, where he became a master in 1717. According to the archives, he was based in Quai Bourbon (1723), sur le Pont Marie (1741), Ile Notre Dame (1743) and finally Quai le Pelletier.