109th Auction

2023/11/18

Lot 254

Ernest Karthaus

A very fine minute repeating hunting case pocket watch with chronograph

estimated
6.5008.000 €
Price realized
-
specific features
Case
18 K pink gold, smooth, glazed movement.
Dial
Enamel.
Movement
Bridge movement, 2 hammers / 2 gongs, club-tooth lever escapement, gold screw compensation balance.
Case no.21
Diam.55 mm
Circa1890
Ctry.USA
Wt.136 g


Ernest Karthaus was born in Schwamendingen near Zurich in 1849. In 1866 he emigrated to America and moved to Kentucky, where he married Carrie Amende, a native of Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1872. Around 1880 he founded a shop for optics, gold and silverware, watches and clocks in Huntsville, Alabama. In the late 1880s, he filed two patents for useful improvements to the mainspring winding system, like a method of inserting mainspring and removing the same.
Ernest Karthaus died in Huntsville, Alabama on April 18, 1900.