Gilt Filigree Porte-Montre, Hanging Watch Holder, c.1890
A late 19th-century porte-montre: a hanging holder that carried a gentleman's pocket watch overnight and turned it into a wall or bedside clock. The watch hooks by its bow at the top and hangs face out against the padded silk, its body dropping into the gilt cup below.
The holder is built as a tapering cone of fine gilt wirework, closely fluted and pierced throughout, rising from a cast fan rosette with a plain oval cartouche at its centre. A crimped scalloped gallery runs around the mouth of the cup, and a pierced border frames the backing panel, which is faced in buttoned crimson silk. A shaped hook and suspension ring sit at the top; the flat reverse is the mount face, made to sit against a wall. Continental work, most likely French, and unsigned, as these nearly always are.
It stands 15cm tall and 6cm across. The gilding is worn with some verdigris showing at the base, the silk is aged with a small tear at the hook slot, and the piece is complete and sound throughout.
