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Lot Essay
Accompanied by Czapek & Cie. original fitted burgundy leather presentation box containing a spare crystal, the cover imprinted with the gilt emblem of Napoleon III.
It is exceedingly rare to find a watch signed by François Czapek's firm Czapek & Cie., active only during a relatively short period of time.
On 1 May 1839 François Czapek and Antoine Patek, both Polish emigrants, established their watch manufacture in Geneva. The small company Patek, Czapek & Co. employed half a dozen of workmen and had a yearly output of around 200 high quality watches.
In 1845 Czapek terminated his cooperation with Patek and set up its own company Czapek & Cie. in 1851, hence entering in direct competition with his former associate Patek & Cie. Czapek specialised in commemorative and jubilee watches, watches with engraved coat-of-arms, portraits or religious subjects. Czapek also worked as watchmaker for Napoleon III, the French Emperor from 1852 to 1870, for whom he obviously made the present watch, bearing the Emperor's emblem.
Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (1808-1873)
A nephew of Napoleon I, he led the Bonapartist opposition to Louis Philippe and became president of the Second Republic in 1848. After proclaiming himself Emperor in 1852, he instituted reforms and rebuilt Paris, one of his most important legacies.
The complete transformation of Paris was Napoleon III's desire to modernize the capital based on what he had seen of the modernizations of London during his exile there in the 1840s. With his characteristic social approach to politics, he aimed to improve health standards and living conditions in Paris. This included the construction of a modern sewage system, the development of new housing with larger apartments and the creation of green parks all across the city with the aim of keeping working classes away from the pubs on Sunday. Large sections of the city were pulled down and old winding streets were replaced by large avenues, turning Paris into the city of broad tree-lined boulevards and parks as it is today.
It is exceedingly rare to find a watch signed by François Czapek's firm Czapek & Cie., active only during a relatively short period of time.
On 1 May 1839 François Czapek and Antoine Patek, both Polish emigrants, established their watch manufacture in Geneva. The small company Patek, Czapek & Co. employed half a dozen of workmen and had a yearly output of around 200 high quality watches.
In 1845 Czapek terminated his cooperation with Patek and set up its own company Czapek & Cie. in 1851, hence entering in direct competition with his former associate Patek & Cie. Czapek specialised in commemorative and jubilee watches, watches with engraved coat-of-arms, portraits or religious subjects. Czapek also worked as watchmaker for Napoleon III, the French Emperor from 1852 to 1870, for whom he obviously made the present watch, bearing the Emperor's emblem.
Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (1808-1873)
A nephew of Napoleon I, he led the Bonapartist opposition to Louis Philippe and became president of the Second Republic in 1848. After proclaiming himself Emperor in 1852, he instituted reforms and rebuilt Paris, one of his most important legacies.
The complete transformation of Paris was Napoleon III's desire to modernize the capital based on what he had seen of the modernizations of London during his exile there in the 1840s. With his characteristic social approach to politics, he aimed to improve health standards and living conditions in Paris. This included the construction of a modern sewage system, the development of new housing with larger apartments and the creation of green parks all across the city with the aim of keeping working classes away from the pubs on Sunday. Large sections of the city were pulled down and old winding streets were replaced by large avenues, turning Paris into the city of broad tree-lined boulevards and parks as it is today.