Pocket Watches · Watch
Watch by Pierre II Combret, France, 1585–1600
- Maker / attribution
- Pierre II Combret (Horloger)
- Date
- 1585–1600
- Historical period
- Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- Lyon
- Object type
- Watch
- Materials / technique
- silver, brass
- Dimensions
- height 5,8 cm; width 3,5 cm; thickness 2,3 cm
- Holding institution
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Accession / object no.
- OA 7039
- Credit line
- Musée du Louvre, Département des Objets d'art du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes
- Catalogue title (original)
- Montre ovale (French)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Musée du Louvre, Paris (object number OA 7039), this is a watch by Pierre II Combret, made in Lyon, France, dated 1585–1600. The Atlas places it in the Renaissance Horology period (1400 – 1600) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver, brass. Recorded dimensions: height 5,8 cm; width 3,5 cm; thickness 2,3 cm. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Catalogue description — Musée du Louvre (French)
Montre ovale ; boîtier gravé, le couvercle du mouvement figure Diane découvrant la grossesse de Callisto, scène supportée par une frise de rinceaux délimitant le sol, en partie supérieure, une tête d'angelot surgit parmi les rinceaux fleuris, et à l'opposé, un lapin. L'envers porte un cadran solaire et une boussole. Couvercle du cadran orné, dans une composition similaire, de Diane transformant Actéon en cerf. Carrure décorée d'une frise de rinceaux où sont représentées Léda et Minerve d'après des gravures d'E. Delaune. Cadran gravé de rinceaux animés par deux Amours tenant une corbeille de fleurs, et, d'une enfant et une ourse buvant à une fontaine. Cercle horaire à chiffres romains orné d'une scène représentant Pyrame et Thisbé. Ajusté dans le boîtier, le mouvement est muni d'un échappement à verge, d'une corde à boyau. Coq et cliquet repercés et gravés de rinceaux.
Shown in the original language of the source catalogue. An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.
Dating and period as catalogued (French)
Epoque / période : Henri IV (1589-1610) (Occident->Renaissance->dynastie des Bourbons) · · Date de création/fabrication : 1585 - 1600
Shown in the original language of the source catalogue. An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.
Materials and techniques as catalogued (French)
Matériau : argent · Matériau : laiton
Shown in the original language of the source catalogue. An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.
Inscriptions & marks
Inscription : ; armoiries gravées dans un écusson au revers du cadran : Bernardini et Bonvisi ; Signature : ; mouvement signé : P Combret/Alyon
Provenance
Collection du prince Pierre Soltykoff (1804-1889) vente à Paris hôtel Drouot 8 avril-1er mai 1861 n° 446 ; collection du baron Achille Seillière ; collection Paul Garnier (1834-1916), à Paris. Don Paul Garnier, en 1916.
Historical context
Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
Spring power makes clocks portable; Nuremberg and Augsburg produce the first watches; the Prague Orloj is built.
The first portable spring-driven timepieces were made in southern Germany, France and Italy. They had iron or brass verge movements with a foliot or small balance and a stackfreed or fusee, indicated hours only, and were worn as pendants — luxury objects more than precise instruments.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Medieval Period
Atlas type guide
Early spring-driven watches
Portable spring-driven timepieces appeared in southern Germany, France and Italy in the early sixteenth century; Peter Henlein of Nuremberg is traditionally credited, although the historical record is complex. These early watches were worn as pendants or carried, had iron or brass movements with a verge escapement and a foliot or small balance, and used a stackfreed or fusee to equalise spring force. They indicated hours only and were notoriously inaccurate.
From the later sixteenth century watches were made in Blois, Paris, Geneva, London and Augsburg in oval, octagonal, cruciform, skull and other 'form' cases of rock crystal, gilt brass, silver and enamel. They were jewellery and status objects as much as timekeepers.
What to look for
- A single hour hand and often a touch-pin hour ring for feeling the time.
- Stackfreed (a cam and spring) instead of a fusee on German watches.
- Pierced and engraved cocks over the balance, fine gut fusee lines.
- Rock-crystal, enamelled or engraved form cases.
Dating clues
- Drum-shaped German watches: c. 1530–1580.
- Oval and form watches: c. 1580–1650.
- Before c. 1675 there is no balance spring; watches can vary by many minutes a day.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:FuseeFoliotThe Melanchthon watch
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