Blondel & Melly. A rare and highly attractive 18K gold, enamel and pearl-set openface cylinder watch with key, made for the Turkish market

SIGNED BLONDEL & MELLY À GENÈVE, NO. 14'269, CIRCA 1820

Details

Blondel & Melly. A rare and highly attractive 18K gold, enamel and pearl-set openface cylinder watch with key, made for the Turkish market
Signed Blondel & Melly à Genève, no. 14'269, circa 1820
Gilt-finished cylinder movement, 8 jewels, plain three-arm balance, gilt cuvette, white enamel dial, Arabic numerals, gilt moon-style hands, outer minute divisions, subsidiary seconds, scalloped case, panels alternating decorated with split pearls or painted polychrome enamel trophies of flowers on translucent green enamel over engine-turned background, similarly decorated pendant and bow, short length of gold chain with matching gold and enamel ratchet key, case numbered and stamped with casemaker's mark FM, cuvette numbered, signed and stamped with casemaker's mark FM, dial bearing Blondel & Melly's Turkish signature
40 mm. diam.

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Lot Essay

For another enamelled watch made by Blondel & Melly for the Turkish market, also bearing their Turkish signature on the dial, see Technique and History of the Swiss Watch by Eugène Jaquet and Alfred Chapuis, pl. 95.

Blondel & Melly, watchmakers and retailers, were active at Geneva's Quai des Bergues from around 1820 to 1850. The firm specialized in the production of watches for the Turkish market and was renowned for their high quality of their timepieces, embellished with engravings, enamelled motifs, pearl and precious stone settings and others.

The present watch is a wonderful example of such a watch, distinguished by the very appealing enamel and pearl decoration and its very good, original overall condition.

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