I · The Maker/II · The Object/III · The Enamel/IV · Acquisition
Room I · The Maker
Monnier à Paris is a documented horological name of the Napoleonic period, signed here on both the dial and the movement. A watch enamelled from bow to caseback, rather than in a single panel, is the exception among the plain gold watches of its day, and one that has survived with every enamel element intact is rarer still. We present the signature as the documented name it is, without claiming a single hand, which is the honest position on a watch of this age.
The Object
A solid gold pocket watch dressed in painted enamel from bow to caseback, made in the age of Napoleon and still running today. Signed Monnier à Paris, hallmarked to 1809-1819, with every enamel panel intact.
A gold watch from the age of Napoleon, painted in enamel from bow to caseback and still keeping time. The back carries a hand-painted scene in the soft palette of the period: a couple in a wooded landscape, a cottage beyond, fired into the gold in full colour. The same blue, white and gold run over the bezel as a laurel band of enamel leaves, up the pendant and around the bow, so nowhere on the outside of the watch is plain gold left to speak alone.
Its date is not a guess. The pendant carries the French gold mark used only in the decade of 1809 to 1819, which fixes the watch to the Napoleonic era as surely as a printed year. It is signed Monnier à Paris on both the dial and the movement, and numbered 7766.
The white enamel dial carries Arabic numerals with the quarters numbered 15, 30, 45 and 60 in the outer dot track, under pierced rose-gold hands in the Louis XVI taste, and behind it sits a gilt full-plate movement with a cylinder escapement, a pierced and engraved balance cock, and a small silver regulator dial for fine adjustment. It is wound and set with a key, as watches of its date are, and it winds, sets and runs correctly on a standard key.
Two centuries is a long life for painted enamel. It chips at bezels, wears at bows, cracks across casebacks; most survivors carry losses somewhere. This one does not: every enamel element is present, clean and unrestored, with only minor flea-bites to the dial under close inspection. The gold shows honest light wear, the hinges open and close cleanly, and at 51.8mm it is a generous size for its period.
The marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the enamel suite is shown close in The Enamel.
Beneath the case
Open each drawer to look closer
Mark 1
Numbered 7766
The serial 7766 struck on the movement, the number that runs with the Monnier signature and would anchor any archive search. On a watch of this age the number is as much a part of its identity as the name, and marks it a documented piece rather than anonymous trade work.
serial 7766
à Paris
Mark 2
Eagle's head on the enamelled pendant
The French eagle's-head gold guarantee, used for gold only between 1809 and 1819, struck into the pendant, which is itself enamelled in blue, white and gold. The mark places the watch in the Napoleonic era and confirms solid gold; the enamelled pendant and bow are part of the complete suite that lifts this piece above a plain gold watch.
gold guarantee, 1809-1819
enamelled bow
Mark 3
Signed Monnier à Paris
The maker's signature, Monnier à Paris, engraved across the movement and repeated on the dial. Monnier is a documented Paris horological name of the period, a signed piece rather than an anonymous trade watch.
Monnier signature
dial & movement signed
- ACylinder escapement, going barrelA gilt full-plate movement running a cylinder escapement from a going barrel, wound and set with a key in the manner of its date.
- BPierced, engraved balance cockThe balance is covered by a pierced and engraved gilt cock, the hand-worked decoration expected on a better watch of the day.
- CSilver A/R regulatorA separate silver regulator dial marked A and R, avance and retard, for fine adjustment of the rate, a refinement found on the finer watches of the period.
Overall
Excellent
A running, honest, original Napoleonic enamel survivor.
Case
Excellent
18k gold open face; honest light surface wear consistent with age, French eagle's-head gold hallmark to the pendant, the enamelled bezel, pendant and bow all present and intact, hinges open and close cleanly.
Dial
Excellent
White enamel, signed Monnier à Paris; clean overall with only minor scattered surface flea-bites under close inspection, no cracks, no restoration.
Movement
Excellent
Gilt full-plate cylinder movement, going barrel, engraved pierced balance cock and silver A/R regulator dial; runs, winds and sets correctly on the key.
Crystal
Excellent
Sound, no chips or cracks.
Caseback enamel
Excellent
Hand-painted pastoral scene, undamaged.
Winding
Excellent
Key-wind and key-set, no crown; winds and sets with a standard key (key not included).
51.77
This watch
25.75
€2 coin
A €2 coin is 25.75 mm. This case is more than two and a half times its area.
Room III · The Enamel
A complete enamel suite, fired two centuries ago
The caseback carries a hand-painted polychrome scene, a couple in a wooded landscape with a cottage beyond, worked in the soft palette of early nineteenth-century enamelling. The decoration does not stop there: the bezel, the pendant and the bow are all enamelled in blue, white and gold, so the watch reads as a complete enamel suite rather than a single decorated panel. Enamel is fragile and rarely survives without chips or losses; this one is intact throughout.
- Maker
- Signed Monnier à Paris (dial and movement)
- Model
- Gold and painted-enamel open-face pocket watch
- Serial
- N° 7766
- Year
- C. 1810 (case hallmarked 1809-1819)
- Case
- 18k gold, open face
- Diameter
- 51.77mm
- Hallmark
- French eagle's head, gold guarantee, 1809-1819
- Dial
- White enamel, Arabic numerals
- Decoration
- Painted enamel caseback scene; enamelled bezel, pendant and bow
- Movement
- Cylinder escapement, going barrel, key-wind, gilt full plate
- Regulation
- Silver A/R regulator dial
- Country
- France
- Complications
- None
The Estate Collection
Room IV · Acquisition
€9.850
We’d love to discuss our passion for this piece with you.
Monnier à Paris
€9.850
Enquiry
Painted Enamel Gold Watch, Monnier c.1810
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