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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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Watch, F. L. Meybom, Case: gold, blued steel, rock crystal, partly gilded silver, and diamonds; Dial: painted enamel and basse-taille enamel on gold; Movement: gilded brass, partly blued steel, and silver, French, Paris
Watch
Watchmaker: F. L. Meybom
Case attributed to Isaac Bergeron dit d'Argent
ca. 1670–75
Chalice à soleil, Gilded silver, French, Paris
Chalice à soleil
French, Paris
1532–33
Division Viol, Barak Norman British, Wood, British
Division Viol
Attributed to Barak Norman
1692
Repeating watch, Francis Perigal British, Case: partly enameled gold; Dial: white enamel with black numerals and silver hands set with diamonds; Movement: gilded brass and partly blued steel, British, London, for Turkish market
Repeating watch
Movement by Francis Perigal
or Francis Perigal Jr.
probably ca. 1770

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