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Lot Essay
US$11,250-16,900
With a fitted presentation box.
The present scarab-form ring watch is a fine and rare example of the highly decorative 1920s Art Deco jewellery design, representing elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity, drawing inspiration from ancient Egyptian and Aztec forms, such as the scarab: enjoying a sacred status at the time of the Pharaohs, the wing scarab was believed to fly across the sky each morning carrying the sun. The scarab was a symbol of the rising sun and a protector from evil; it is also a symbol of rebirth, regeneration, creation, transformation and was commonly worn to gain strength.
In ancient China, a Taoist text quotes "the Scarab rolls its pellet, and life is born in it as an effect nondispersed work spiritual concentration."
The patent numbers stamped to inside and outside of the case most likely refer to the unusual movement winding and hour setting system, activated by lifting the hinged right shoulder and turning it, respectively tearing it out and turning it.
Beetle or scarab-form watches were highly fashionable in China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A scarab-watch signed Vacheron Constantin is illustrated in The Chinese Watch by Alfred Chapuis, chapter "Jewelled Watches", p. 233, pl. 218. Two scarab-watches are described and illustrated in Timepieces, The Forbidden City Publishing House, pp. 282 & 283. The tome comprises a selection of timepieces in Beijing's Palace Museum which owns one of the largest collections of mechanical timepieces of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries in the world, comprising over 1,000 pieces. The collection contains both Chinese and foreign-made watches, clocks and automatons. Chinese exhibits came from the Palace's own workshops, Guangzhou (Canton) and Suzhou (Suchow). Watches made abroad include manufacturers from Britain, France, Switzerland, the United States and Japan.
Notable items in the collection include a clock with automaton which is able to write, with a miniature writing brush on inserted paper, an auspicious couplet in perfect Chinese calligraphy.
With a fitted presentation box.
The present scarab-form ring watch is a fine and rare example of the highly decorative 1920s Art Deco jewellery design, representing elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity, drawing inspiration from ancient Egyptian and Aztec forms, such as the scarab: enjoying a sacred status at the time of the Pharaohs, the wing scarab was believed to fly across the sky each morning carrying the sun. The scarab was a symbol of the rising sun and a protector from evil; it is also a symbol of rebirth, regeneration, creation, transformation and was commonly worn to gain strength.
In ancient China, a Taoist text quotes "the Scarab rolls its pellet, and life is born in it as an effect nondispersed work spiritual concentration."
The patent numbers stamped to inside and outside of the case most likely refer to the unusual movement winding and hour setting system, activated by lifting the hinged right shoulder and turning it, respectively tearing it out and turning it.
Beetle or scarab-form watches were highly fashionable in China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A scarab-watch signed Vacheron Constantin is illustrated in The Chinese Watch by Alfred Chapuis, chapter "Jewelled Watches", p. 233, pl. 218. Two scarab-watches are described and illustrated in Timepieces, The Forbidden City Publishing House, pp. 282 & 283. The tome comprises a selection of timepieces in Beijing's Palace Museum which owns one of the largest collections of mechanical timepieces of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries in the world, comprising over 1,000 pieces. The collection contains both Chinese and foreign-made watches, clocks and automatons. Chinese exhibits came from the Palace's own workshops, Guangzhou (Canton) and Suzhou (Suchow). Watches made abroad include manufacturers from Britain, France, Switzerland, the United States and Japan.
Notable items in the collection include a clock with automaton which is able to write, with a miniature writing brush on inserted paper, an auspicious couplet in perfect Chinese calligraphy.