Sotheby’s to Offer Watches From the L.A. Mayer Museum Host to the Legendary Sir David Salomon's Collection
Sotheby’s to Offer
WATCHES FROM THE L.A. MAYER MUSEUM HOST TO THE LEGENDARY SIR DAVID SALOMONS COLLECTION
and the “Mona Lisa” of Horology, the “Marie-Antoinette” Led by an Unprecedented Group of three Timepieces by Abraham-Louis Breguet,
including an experimental watch bought by the Prince Regent, future King George IV. Made for Breguet’s most famous and loyal clients, the watches accompanied the “Queen”all along its tumultuous journey through the past century, from the legendary collection of Sir David to the museum in Jerusalem and its miraculous recovery following history’s greatest watch heist.
In the world of watches, few names command as much reverence as Sir David Lionel Salomons, the world-renowned authority on Abraham-Louis Breguet, whose watch collection – one of the greatest in the world – has been housed in the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem for over half a century and includes the legendary “Marie-Antoinette” - the Grande Complication created by Breguet for the ill-fated Queen.
On 28th October, a group of watches, originally in the collection of Sir David, will be offered in Sotheby’s London Watches sale, as part of a series of two sales featuring select works from the Collection of the L.A. Mayer Museum (Islamic art, vertu and watches) (See separate release for more details). The watch auction will be spearheaded by three important watches by Abraham-Louis Breguet, all created by the watchmaking genius while he was working on “the Queen”1 and during his most active period, from 1790 until his death in 1823.
Abraham-Louis Breguet was a “celebrity watchmaker” whose pioneering creations were sought after by the crowned heads and elites of Europe in the early 19th century. The sale will be spearheaded by pieces made for the watchmaker’s most eminent clients and loyal patrons: the Prince Regent (future King George IV of England), the Duc of Praslin (owner of the famous eponymous watch, bequeathed in 1924 by Sir David to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris) and Princess Caroline Murat, Napoléon’s ambitious sister for whom Breguet created the “Reine de Naples”, the very first wristwatch. For these clients – all passionate about horology - Breguet created some of his most ambitious pieces, incorporating revolutionary inventions.
Daryn Schnipper, Chairman of Sotheby’s International Watch Division, said: “Over 100 years ago, Sir David Lionel Salomons assembled the world’s greatest collections of Breguet watches in private hands. Today, his watches, steeped in the watchmaker’s genius and the legend of their original owners - have achieved mythical status. If the name of Sir David continues to carry so much gravitas, it is certainly because his passion for horology was inspired by the same enlightened values that drove Breguet in his quest to revolutionise timekeeping. It is a huge honour to have been entrusted with the sale of these watches, thereby perpetuating Sir David’s legacy and the humanist values of the museum created by his daughter, Vera.”
THE JOURNEY OF THE WATCHES
All the Breguet pieces in the sale were originally in the collection of Sir David Lionel Salomons (1851-1925), a British engineer and industrialist who was instrumental in the development of electricity, motor car and many mechanical inventions at the end of the 19th century. Intrigued by every aspect of science, he amassed the world's largest private collection of Breguet watches and clocks, comprising 124 pieces. Upon his death, the most important pieces passed on to his daughter, Vera Frances Bryce Salomons who, in 1969, founded the L.A. Mayer Museum in Jerusalem and bequeathed her father’s watch collection to the institution.
37 years later, on 15 April 1983, more than 100 watches from the museum collection, including the Marie Antoinette and 55 other Breguet watches disappeared in the biggest burglary in the history of horology. The watches resurfaced in 2008, before being safely returned to the museum.
HIGHLIGHTS
A watch fit for a king: The Prince Regent’s Resonance watch Breguet No. 2788, bought for £350 (7,200 Francs) by the Prince Regent for his father, King George III on 2nd October 1818 Est. £400,000-600,000
The star lot of the sale is a very rare experimental gold precision watch purchased by the Prince Regent (later George IV) who shared a passion for horology with his father, George III. Both were avid collectors of Breguet pieces (N.B.: In July 2020, George III’s gold four-minute tourbillon watch sold for a record-breaking $2m at Sotheby’s in
London).
When the Prince Regent bought this watch in 1818, he paid the remarkable sum of £350 (7,200 francs) - one of the most expensive watches ever sold by Breguet. The price matched the importance of the watch which featured one of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s greatest discoveries: the Parisian watchmaker was the first to apply the principle of resonance (based on the theory that two oscillating bodies placed in close proximity) to a watch movement. Breguet’s ‘double watches’ introduced two independent movements within the same case, beating in sympathetic opposition to one another. Only three “double watches” are known today and two of them were made for monarchs (or future monarchs), including this one and another sold to the King of France, Louis XVIII in 1821
The Duc of Praslin’s “Perpétuelle” Breguet no. 148 sold to the Duc de Praslin in December 1792 for 4,000 francs Est. £250,000 - 350,000
The Duc of Praslin was a keen supporter and close friend of Breguet. A soldier and a politician, he owned a number of Breguet pieces, including one of the most famous and complicated watches ever made by the watchmaker: the no. 92, better known as the “Duc of Praslin” and bequeathed by Sir David to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs of Paris in 1924.
The watch in the sale – no. 148 – is a “perpétuelle” (i.e. self-winding watch) and minute repeater sold to the Duc of Praslin in 1792 for 4,000 francs. In his book The Art of Breguet, British watchmaker George Daniels said: "Breguet did not invent the perpétuelle but he certainly did perfect it” and this is admirably illustrated by this watch which also unusually combines chronometer escapement and dial displays, days of the week state of winding and a thermometer.
Princess Murat’s Thermometer Watch Breguet No. 1806 sold to the Princess Murat on 25th May 1807 for 4,000 francs Est. £200,000 - 300,000
A further highlight in the sale was made for another of Breguet’s best clients: Princess Murat, better known as Caroline Bonaparte (1782- 1839), the younger sister of Napoleon. When she purchased the watch in May 1807, Caroline Murat was very much in ascendance. The year before, she and her husband had been granted the Grand Duchy of Berg and Cleves and the following year would see their elevation to King and Queen Consort of Naples. Between 1808 and 1814 Caroline Murat purchased some 34 further clocks and watches from Breguet, including an ultra-slim watch designed to be worn on the wrist – one of the first wristwatches ever created.
The watch in the sale includes a thermometer – an invention Breguet devoted considerable time to develop. The watch’s gold engine-turned dial also displays day, date, month and, unusually, the year and a quarter repeater. In typical Breguet fashion, what may otherwise have required an extremely complex arrangement is instead elegantly and ingeniously executed.
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