Pocket watch: outstanding gold and enamel verge watch with repeater

Approx. Ø47.5mm, approx. 102g, 18K gold, French gold hallmark 1756–1762, exquisite enamel work with blue floral motifs, signed verge movement with à-toc quarter-hour repeater, enamel dial, gold hands, in working order and very well preserved. Jean-Baptiste Baillon (de Fontenay) was a very famous watchmaker and, at the time, the wealthiest in Paris during the 18th century; he became a master watchmaker in 1727, and his shop was initially on the Place Dauphine and later on the Rue Dauphine. Baillon was watchmaker to the Queen of France, Maria Leczinska (1738) ‘Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire de la Reine’ around 1748, ‘Premier Valet de Chambre de la Reine’, and from around 1770, watchmaker at the court of Queen Marie Antoinette, ‘Premier Valet de Chambre and Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire de la Dauphine to Marie-Antoinette’. Ferdinand Berthoud was greatly impressed at the time by Baillon’s factory and shop, by their size and outstanding quality. In 1753, Berthoud wrote of Baillon’s shop: “It is currently the finest and most opulent watch shop”. “Diamonds were used not only on pocket watches, but even on grand clocks.” Examples of his work can be found, amongst others, at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Château de Versailles, the Musée Paul-Dupuy in Toulouse, the Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis in Brussels, the Museo Galileo in Florence, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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