Centuries of Time: A Private Collection
Centuries of Time: A Private Collection
Auguste Courvoisier & Co.
A gold and enamel hunting cased lever watch made for the Ottoman market with polychrome enamel painted portrait of Napoleon iii and the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition's Palais de l'Industrie Circa 1855, no. 45396
Auction Closed
May 14, 02:23 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 CHF
Lot Details
Description
Auguste Courvoisier & Co.
A gold and enamel hunting cased lever watch made for the Ottoman market with polychrome enamel painted portrait of Napoleon iii and the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition's Palais de l'Industrie
Circa 1855, no. 45396
• Movement: gilded bar-form movement with lever escapement, compensation balance, parachute suspension, gold polished cuvette with engine-turned rim and signed Auguste Courvoisier & Co., La Chaux de Fonds, no. 45396
• Dials: white enamel dial, outer minute ring, Turkish numerals, blued steel moon hands
• Case: gold, the front cover with polychrome enamel painted portrait of Napoleon III, the back with a view of the Palais d'Industrie, Paris with an engraved eagle above and below, each scene surrounded by champlevé enamel in opaque white & light blue and translucent dark blue & red, front cover numbered 45396, back numbered 6
diameter 48mm
Following the Coup d'état of December 1851, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte declared himself Emperor of the French in 1852. In 1851, the Great Exhibition held at London's Crystal Palace had created a sensation, attracting some 6 million visitors. Early in his reign, Napoleon III was determined to create an exhibition to rival the success of the London exhibition. Napoleon was particularly keen to ensure that the building to house a Paris exhibition should rival the magnitude of London's Crystal Palace. A competition to design the building for a Paris World Fair was won by the architect Jean-Marie-Victor Viel and the engineer Desjardin. Erected in time for the 1855 Paris Fair, the building was located between the Seine and the Champs-Elysées and named the Palais de l'Industrie. It is this building which is polychrome enamel painted to the back of the present watch, while a portrait of Napoleon III is shown to the front.
Philippe Auguste Courvoisier (1803-1873) was a younger brother of Frédéric Courvoisier and, like his brother, initially worked for the family firms of Courvoisier & Cie and Courvoisier Frères but had ceased working for both by 1852. A few watches by Philippe Auguste Courvoisier with Turkish numeral dials are known. Given the subject matter of the watch's case, it is possible that the watch was a diplomatic gift given by Napoleon to a dignitary from the Ottoman Empire.