![A GOLD HUNTING CASED KEYLESS LEVER MINUTE REPEATING WATCH WITH JACQUEMARTS AUTOMATON CIRCA 1890 [黃金三問懷錶備JACQUEMARTS活動人偶 ，年份約1890]](https://dam.sothebys.com/dam/image/lot/e0eb73eb-7355-446e-8958-442c203ba6fc/primary/extra_small)
Masterworks of Time: Splendours for the East 「時間傑作：西器東傳」
Masterworks of Time: Splendours for the East 「時間傑作：西器東傳」
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L. Vrard & Co., Tientsin
A GOLD HUNTING CASED KEYLESS LEVER MINUTE REPEATING WATCH WITH JACQUEMARTS AUTOMATON CIRCA 1890 [黃金三問懷錶備JACQUEMARTS活動人偶 ，年份約1890]
Lot Closed
November 12, 03:44 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 CHF
Lot Details
Description
L. Vrard & Co., Tientsin
A GOLD HUNTING CASED KEYLESS LEVER MINUTE REPEATING WATCH WITH JACQUEMARTS AUTOMATON
CIRCA 1890
[黃金三問懷錶備JACQUEMARTS活動人偶 ，年份約1890]
• Movement: decoratively engraved nickel, wolf's tooth winding, jewelled to the centre, blued steel overcoil, compensation balance, two polished steel hammers repeating on coiled gongs
• Dial: white enamel chapter ring, Roman numerals, outer Arabic minute ring, subsidiary seconds, centre translucent blue guilloché enamel, two polychrome enamel painted jacquemarts figures striking anvils in tandem with the repeating mechanism
• Case: 18ct gold, engine-turned covers, the front centred with a vacant cartouche surrounded by scroll work, repeating slide to the band, glazed cuvette, lever beneath bezel for hand setting, inside front cover stamped with the Chinese Hantali mark of L. Vrard & Co., case back numbered 5279, front numbered 79, all covers with Swiss control marks
diameter 56mm
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In 1860, Édouard Laidrich from Belp in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, together with a Frenchman, formed the firm of Laidrich & Vrard (later known as L. Vrard & Cie) in Shanghai. Laidrich himself had completed an apprenticeship in Fleurier before travelling to China to represent a firm from the same town. Some time after 1870, Vrard & Cie acquired the company Borel & Sandri in Tientsin, thereby allowing the firm to expand their operations from Shanghai.
In 1881 the firm was acquired by Pierre (1840-1899) and Fritz Loup from Motiers. Fritz Loup died in an accident about a year later and the firm was continued by Pierre Loup who died in Tientsin in 1899. Pierre was in turn succeeded by two of his three sons, Gustave (1876-1961) and Bernard Loup (1880-1963). Until 1894, L. Vrard & Cie sold and represented Bovet watches in the north of China. Vrard also owned the brand name 'Hantali', the Chinese characters of which can be found to the inside of the case lid of the present watch. Translated from Chinese, Hantali means "the success that spreads". For further information on L Vrard & Cie, see: A. Chapuis, La Montre Chinoise, 1919, pp.159-160.