France, First Empire (1804-1814). - Lot 58

  2. Result
  3. France, First Empire (1804-1814). - Lot 58
  4. Lot n° 58 
Lot n° 58
Go to lot
Estimation :
8000 - 12000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 19 840EUR
France, First Empire (1804-1814). - Lot 58
France, First Empire (1804-1814). Exceptional silver pocket watch with automata bearing the inscription "NAPOLEON au GENERAL COMTE de MONTHOLON - Ste HELENE 14 AOUT 1816". Decorated with a couple of natives and a lion finely chiseled on both sides of the dial, dressed in loincloths and crowned with feathers, each holding a bow and arrow in one hand and a hammer in the other, striking two bells at the time of its ringing. Rooster movement signed "Meugnier Horloger de l'Empereur & Roi", repeating with two hammers on a gong by a pusher on the bezel, and striking the hours and quarters on demand. The guilloche dial with Roman numerals and blued hands. The back of the case is guilloche, finely chiseled with scrolls on the edge, and in its center of an eagle with spread wings holding in its beak a branch of foliage. The ball is hallmarked twice: clockmaker's hallmark affixed when the watch was made between 1807 and 1812, and the "crab" hallmark for the 800 silver (put into service on May 10, 1838), affixed at the sale of Count Montholon's property at public auction. Numbered "14684" on several items. Gross weight : 108,3 g. Diameter : 55 cm. Height : 6,8 cm. Thickness 2 cm. (wear and patina of time, small repair to the arm of one of the ringers, the key missing, revised and functional, good condition). Provenance: preserved in the family who acquired it at the auction of Count Montholon's property until 2010, it was purchased directly from one of the descendants of this same family by a very enlightened amateur who has kept it to this day. Notes : - MEUGNIER (or Mugnier), watchmaker to the Emperor and King, established in rue Neuve des Petits Champs in Paris. He apprenticed with Linder Abraham Louis Breguet alongside his master and Charles Oudin (another student of Breguet). He was the only manufacturer capable of making such a complex watch. In the inventory of the accounts of the Emperor's household in the national archives we find "Mugnier horloger", payment of fees for the supply of watches and various works in 1807, 1809 and 1812. - MONTHOLON Charles Tristan, Count of (1783-1853): General, Chamberlain and Minister Plenipotentiary of Napoleon I, whom he followed to Saint Helena and whose eyes he closed. Executor of Napoleon Bonaparte's will, the Baron and then Count of Montholon was the most rewarded of all the companions of the deposed Emperor, whose "Memoirs" he would later publish. Compromised in the plot of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte and condemned to 20 years of detention, he will be released after the escape of this one of the fort of Ham. He was a deputy of the Charente-Inférieure at the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies (1848-1849). He was reinstated Brigadier General (1852) and Count of the Empire (1853).
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue