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Watch

Watchmaker: David Ramsay
Enameler Plaques by I. R. (probably Jean Reymond)
ca. 1620–25
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 544
In the first quarter of the seventeenth century a small group of enamelers in Limoges produced polychrome painted enamels for watchcases. Most of the surviving enamels, including the one displayed here, were adapted from the woodcut illustrations by Bernard Salomon (1505/1510–ca. 1561) for the editions of Ovid’s Metamorphoses published in Lyon by Jean de Tournes beginning in 1555. The case of the watch was cleverly modified, probably at some time in the second half of the nineteenth century, to fit a movement of equal rarity.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Watch
  • Maker: Watchmaker: David Ramsay (working 1600, died 1660)
  • Enameler: Plaques by I. R. (probably Jean Reymond) (active ca. 1615–32) of Limoges
  • Date: ca. 1620–25
  • Culture: British, probably London
  • Medium: Case: painted enamel on copper, partly gilt, and silver gilt; Movement: gilded brass, steel, partly blued, and silver
  • Dimensions: Overall: 1 7/8 × 1 3/8 in. (4.8 × 3.5 cm)
  • Classification: Horology
  • Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
  • Object Number: 17.190.1550
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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