This lot is offered without reserve.

William Allam. A fine 18K gold and enamel quarter repeating verge watch, enamel by Augustin Toussaint

SIGNED WM. ALLAM, LONDON, NO. 1451, CIRCA 1780

Details

William Allam. A fine 18K gold and enamel quarter repeating verge watch, enamel by Augustin Toussaint
Signed Wm. Allam, London, No. 1451, circa 1780
With gilt-finished verge movement, chain fusée, finely engraved and pierced foliage and scroll decorated balance cock and foot, turned pillars, quarter repeating on two polished steel hammers onto the case and onto the gilt metal dust cap, the white enamel dial with Roman numerals, outer Arabic five minute divisions, gold beetle and poker hands, in circular case with finely chased and white and blue champlevé enamel scroll decorated bezel and rim, the similarly decorated green, white and blue champlevé enamel back centred by an oval painted en grisaille enamel scene signed AT for Augustus Toussaint, diamond-set thumbpiece, repeating through the pendant, movement signed and numbered, dust cap signed
46 mm. diam.

Literature

The present watch with enamel by Augustin Toussaint is mentioned in The Art of the Gold Chaser in eighteenth-century London by Richard Edgcumbe, p. 148.

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Lot Essay

Augustin Toussaint was the son of Louis Toussaint, a London based jeweler and enameler. In 1768 he was apprenticed as enamel painter to the renowned enameler and gold chaser George Michael Moser for the enormous fee of 200 guineas.

Augustin Toussaint's works were exhibited at the Royal Academy (1775-88) and are recorded on watches signed Emery, Perigal, the present watch and a watch case in the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. no. 1065-1855).

The neoclassical grisaille on a brown ground enamel decoration enjoyed great popularity in late 18th century London.

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