91st Auction
2015/5/16
Lot 187
Paul Philip Barraud, Cornhill, London, No. 9127, 63 mm, 178 g, circa 1815
A rare gold enamel pocket watch with musical movement for the Chinese market
Case: 18k gold, the border set with half pearls, reeded band, case back with an exquisite painted polychrome enamel composition of summer flowers against translucent green enamel on engine-turned ground, lever for M/S (music/silence), pearl-set pendant and bow. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, auxiliary seconds, gold spade hands. Movm.: bridge movement, keywind, frosted, gilt, 2 going barrels, cylinder escapement, four-arm brass balance, fine florally engraved, pierced balance cock, mirror-polished and bevelled levers for musical movement with pin barrel and vibrating blades.
"Yet with the built-in reputation for quality that the firm had carefully nurtured for decades, what could possibly be attractive in foreign manufactures that they could not produce themselves? Swiss enamelled watches, for a start. With an export business in the Far East, they would be bound to have a demand for watches "in the Chinese taste" - their cases enamelled in Geneva, and with the added embellishment of split-pearl bezels and pendant borders - which it would be impossible to fill from domestic sources. Some such explanation as this goes a long way to explain the substantial number of watches - all numbered in the 9000s, and perhaps the finest of which is illustrated at Plate XXXI - which carry the Barraud name, but are all wholly of Swiss manufacture and obviously intended eventually for the Chinese market."
Source: "Paul Philipp Barraud" by Cedric Jagger, London 1968, p. 210.
Paul Philipp Barraud (1750-1820)
Barraud was an English chronometer maker in London. His parents were Francis Gabriel Barraud and Magadalen Benine née Crespin, who was the daughter of a renowned Huguenot silversmith. In 1796 Barraud became a member of the Clockmakers Company of London and a master in 1810/11. He formed a partnership with George Jamieson and William Howells; of Barraud’s 7 children, his sons Frederick Joseph, John and James followed him into the business. From 1796 until 1820 they created more than 1,000 chronometers together.
Source: Wikipedia "Die freie Enzyklopädie" - "Paul Philipp Barraud", http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Philipp_Barraud, as of 02/10/2012.
A rare gold enamel pocket watch with musical movement for the Chinese market
Case: 18k gold, the border set with half pearls, reeded band, case back with an exquisite painted polychrome enamel composition of summer flowers against translucent green enamel on engine-turned ground, lever for M/S (music/silence), pearl-set pendant and bow. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, auxiliary seconds, gold spade hands. Movm.: bridge movement, keywind, frosted, gilt, 2 going barrels, cylinder escapement, four-arm brass balance, fine florally engraved, pierced balance cock, mirror-polished and bevelled levers for musical movement with pin barrel and vibrating blades.
"Yet with the built-in reputation for quality that the firm had carefully nurtured for decades, what could possibly be attractive in foreign manufactures that they could not produce themselves? Swiss enamelled watches, for a start. With an export business in the Far East, they would be bound to have a demand for watches "in the Chinese taste" - their cases enamelled in Geneva, and with the added embellishment of split-pearl bezels and pendant borders - which it would be impossible to fill from domestic sources. Some such explanation as this goes a long way to explain the substantial number of watches - all numbered in the 9000s, and perhaps the finest of which is illustrated at Plate XXXI - which carry the Barraud name, but are all wholly of Swiss manufacture and obviously intended eventually for the Chinese market."
Source: "Paul Philipp Barraud" by Cedric Jagger, London 1968, p. 210.
Paul Philipp Barraud (1750-1820)
Barraud was an English chronometer maker in London. His parents were Francis Gabriel Barraud and Magadalen Benine née Crespin, who was the daughter of a renowned Huguenot silversmith. In 1796 Barraud became a member of the Clockmakers Company of London and a master in 1810/11. He formed a partnership with George Jamieson and William Howells; of Barraud’s 7 children, his sons Frederick Joseph, John and James followed him into the business. From 1796 until 1820 they created more than 1,000 chronometers together.
Source: Wikipedia "Die freie Enzyklopädie" - "Paul Philipp Barraud", http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Philipp_Barraud, as of 02/10/2012.
Sold
estimated
65.000—75.000 €
Price realized
72.000 €