Live Auction 1417Rare Watches Including Nautilus 40 Part II
Salvator Micallef. A rare and very attractive 18K gold and ronde-bosse enamel quarter repeating verge watch in the 17th century manner
Lot 192

Salvator Micallef. A rare and very attractive 18K gold and ronde-bosse enamel quarter repeating verge watch in the 17th century manner

Signed Salvator Micallef à Malte, circa 1800

Closed14 November 2016

Price Realised

CHF 2,500

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Salvator Micallef. A rare and very attractive 18K gold and ronde-bosse enamel quarter repeating verge watch in the 17th century manner
Signed Salvator Micallef à Malte, circa 1800
MOVEMENT: manual, chain fusée, verge escapement, quarter repeating with two hammers on a bell in the back of the case
DIAL: gold, champlevé enamel Roman numerals, green, blue and white champlevé enamel scroll and stylized leaf decoration
CASE: 18K gold, polished body overlaid with pierced and chased high relief flowers and foliage in red, green and blue ronde-bosse enamel, bezel edge and pendant with white enamel and black dot decoration, repeating through the pendant, 42.5 mm. diam.
SIGNED: movement

Specialist note

This fascinating and beautiful watch is highly unusual in being made in the style of the early 17th century although actually made in Malta at the end of the 18th or early 19th century. It was perhaps a special commission for a particular client as Micallef’s other known watches are of typical neoclassical form. The style of enamelling seen here is known as ronde-bosse, the pierced and chased high-relief flowers are then enamelled to create a sumptuous effect. The ronde-bosse technique was particularly popular in the first half of the 17th century in France and Switzerland. The Maltese watchmaker Salvatore Micallef is listed as working from c1790 until the early 19th century.