Lot 155

Moricand & Degrange

A magnificent Geneva gold enamel verge pocket watch "à quatre couleurs", set with turquoises and amethysts

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The back of this magnificent gold pocket watch is satin-finished, decorated with granulated gold décor, and set with turquoise. At its centre rise five three-dimensional tulips in white enamel with dark gold stems and light gold leaves, framed by six cut amethysts and entwined by two gold-scaled snakes in black-and-white champlevé enamel.
The bezel, pendant, and bow are decorated with chased floral scrolls in three-colour gold. The chased silver dial features a small Roman chapter ring with a central guilloche pattern, eccentrically placed to give the ornamentation more room. The signature plaque at 12 o’clock is flanked by two vines of stamped and engraved roses, vine leaves, and grapes in high relief and three-colour gold.
Provenance: Lukas Stolberg collection. This watch is illustrated and described in his book "Ich trage, wo ich gehe, stets eine Uhr bei mir. Die Taschenuhr im Wandel der Zeit" (I always carry a watch with me wherever I go. The pocket watch through the ages), Klagenfurt 1980, p. 134.

The Metropolitan Museums of Art owns another gold and enamel pocket watch with Champlevé ornamentation by Moricand & Degrange. Futher pocket watches are held in the Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum Collection in Malta and in the British Museum in London.
Swiss jewellers and watch retailers Moricand & Degrange were based in Geneva and active from around 1828 to 1845.
Moïse-Etienne Moricand, known as Stefano (1779-1854), was the owner of the company Moricand & Degrange and also a renowned natural scientist. He moved to Italy at a very young age to establish a watch retailing business. He visited primarily the regions of Tuscany, Naples and Venice, where he collected plants, butterflies, mussels and minerals and met with a number of Italian scientists. After his return to Geneva in 1814 Stefano became a member of the Société des Naturalistes and a partner in his father’s company at the Rue des Corps-Saints.
He was co-founder of the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève but in everyday life he worked as a merchant for Moricand & Degrange. We have no information on the business partner Degrange.
Stefano’s uncle Pierre François Moricand (1758-?) moved to Paris in 1797 and worked for "La manufacture d'horlogerie de Versailles" (1795-1801), also called "La fabrique d'horlogerie genevoise de Versailles", until the company went into administration. Pierre François Moricand was married to the sister of famous miniature painter Jeanne-Marie Glaesner (1762-1823).
Source: watch-wiki