Lot 370

A collection of 4 verge pocket watches
Barend Oortkras, Hagae (The Hague), 50 mm, 122 g, circa 1750
A Dutch pair-cased verge pocket watch with enamel plaque, date and mock pendulum with comtemporary emblem "Un Seul Me Suffit"
Case: outer case - silver, on the reverse side a polychrome enamel plaque painted with a figurative scene. Inner case - silver. Dial: silver, champlevé, chased centre with the depiction of a Cupid and a globe, date window. Movm.: full plate movement, chain/fusee, ring blance with "mock pendulum".
The movement is fitted with a silver balance bridge in the shape of a plaque with a cutout for the mock pendulum balance. The plaque is stamped with a contemporary emblem and shows a putto holding a heart in his hand; three more hearts are resting on the altar of love next to the putto. Below the scene is an inscription: "Un Seul Me Suffit" (one is enough).
Barend Oortkras was a renowned watchmaker who lived in Den Haag in the 18th century. The tsarina Elizabeth bought a glockenspiel off him in 1760 for the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg after the original one had been struck by lightning in 1756. Oortkras himself went to Saint Petersburg with a team of craftsmen and delivered the glockenspiel. When they arrived, it turned out that the tower had not been restored yet, so the glockenspiel could not be put into place. Oortkras remained in Saint Petersburg but he died in poverty in 1764 before the tower was ever rebuilt completely.
Provenance: Landrock Collection

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