Pendant Watch

The decoration on the dail and back of this platinum watch recalls ancient cameos but also due to the blue and white color the jasperware plaques made by Josiah Wedgwood. The figures may depict the four seasons: summer and fall on the dial, and spring and winter on the reverse.

The movement is engraved "Made for Marcus & Co. by Verger France Eighteen Jewels and Five Adjustments." Verger was founded in Paris in 1872, by Ferdiand Verger (1851-1928) who came from a family of watch makers.

The figures that decorate the front and back of the watch are painted on ivory in watercolor and signed by Fernand Paillet, an artist who provided miniatures of neoclassical themes for some of the world's most pestigious jewelry houses, including Bolin of Moscow, Boucheron and Lacloches of Paris, Mappin and Webb of London, and Tiffany, Brock, and Spaulding in the United States. Paillet also painted miniature portraits of American women of the Gilded Age, including Edith Wharton.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Henry Walters [date and mode of acqusition unknown]; Mrs. Jean Walters Delano Edgell (1889-1953) (Henry's niece) by gift, before 1931; Mr. Henry Walters Edgell, Manchester, New Hampshire [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Mrs. Elizabeth Edgell, February 9, 1986, by gift [from her husband, Mr. Henry Walters Edgell]; Walters Art Museum, 2010, by gift.