Lot 71

Just & Son, London, Movement No. 3058, 52 mm, 106 g, circa 1820
An impressive gold enamel pocket watch with centre seconds for the Chinese market - "Bouquet of Spring Flowers"
Case: 18k gold, polychrome enamel, florally engraved gold dome. Dial: enamel. Movm.: bridge movement according to Lepine, keywind, gilt, florally engraved, standing barrel, duplex escapement, three-arm ring balance with six screws.
Bow, pendant, stem and both bezels on front and back are decorated with translucent red and opaque white Champlevé enamel. The exquisitely painted enamel medallion on the back is surrounded by an ornamental white and turquoise-coloured Champlevé frame and shows a delicate polychrome composition of spring flowers on translucent red enamel ground over radial engine-turned pattern.
Just & Son were a watchmaking company based in London; the business was founded by Leonard Just and his son and apprentice Leonard Just Jr.
Due to the increasing demand for high quality enamel watches in the Far East, Just & Son moved first to Guangzhou and then to Macao in 1820. Shortly after the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Opium War, which ceded Hong Kong Island to the British Empire, Just & Son opened a branch in Hong Kong in 1846. Sometime later Just sold his house and the business in Macao and moved to Hong Kong for good; from then on he devoted himself solely to the development of sophisticated timepieces for the Chinese market.
The quality of the Just & Son timepieces has often been compared to that of those made by William Anthony; Anthony, however, was much more famous and his watches set records all over the world.