Moser & Cie Silver and Blue Guilloché Enamel Quarter Repeating Carriage Clock, circa 1910
A particularly fine and unusual Swiss silver and translucent blue guilloché enamel quarter-repeating carriage clock, retailed by the celebrated firm Moser & Cie, circa 1910 and made for the Russian market.
The rectangular silver case is beautifully decorated to the front, sides and top with rich translucent royal-blue enamel over finely engine-turned guilloché decoration. Different patterns have been employed across the case, including an especially attractive radiating sunburst design beneath the dial, which gives the enamel remarkable depth and brilliance as it catches the light.
The clock is surmounted by an elegant scrolling silver carrying handle, with the quarter-repeat button positioned centrally on the top of the case.
The white enamel dial is signed “MOSER & CIE”, with stylised black Arabic numerals and an outer minute track. Particularly attractive are the original gold hands, providing a luxurious contrast against the white dial and vivid blue guilloche enamel.
The rear silver door opens to reveal a high-quality Swiss quarter-repeating movement, which strikes the hours and quarters on demand when the button on the top of the clock is depressed.
Of particular interest, the movement is stamped NOCTURNE and BREVET 30225. Nocturne was a specialist Swiss maker of sophisticated small clock movements and is particularly notable for having supplied movements to Cartier, placing the mechanism within the sphere of the finest Swiss-made luxury clocks of the early 20th century.
The combination of a Nocturne quarter-repeating movement with a case retailed by Moser & Cie is especially appealing.
The combination of Swiss and Russian marks is particularly appropriate for H. Moser & Cie, whose history was intimately connected with Imperial Russia.
Heinrich Moser, born into a Swiss watchmaking family in Schaffhausen in 1805, travelled to Russia as a young watchmaker and established H. Moser & Cie in St Petersburg in 1828. The company rapidly developed a prestigious clientele amongst the Russian aristocracy and Imperial Court, while its watches and movements were produced through Moser's Swiss manufacturing operations.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, H. Moser & Cie had become one of the most respected names in the Russian luxury watch trade, with its Swiss manufacture producing everything from straightforward watches to highly complicated timepieces for its wealthy Russian clientele.
This clock dates from the fascinating final period of that relationship, shortly before the Russian Revolution brought the firm's Imperial Russian business to an end.
The combination of H. Moser & Cie, translucent guilloché enamel, high-grade silver, Imperial Russian provenance and a complicated repeating movement makes this an especially rare survival from the golden age of Russian luxury objects.
Dating from the years immediately preceding the Russian Revolution of 1917, this clock is a particularly evocative survival from the final period of Imperial Russia, when firms such as Moser commissioned some of the finest Swiss manufacturers to produce luxury objects for their Russian clientele.
The silver case bears Swiss silver marks, together with a Russian import/control mark, consistent with its manufacture in Switzerland for the Russian market.
With its rich blue guilloché enamel, gold hands, sophisticated quarter-repeating Nocturne movement, Moser & Cie signature and Imperial Russian provenance, this is an exceptionally attractive and highly collectable example of an early 20th-century luxury travelling clock...
Category
1910s Swiss Vintage Archibald Knox Decorative Objects
