Pocket Watches · Watch
Watch by Yver, France, 1685–1700
- Maker / attribution
- Yver (Horloger)
- Date
- 1685–1700
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- Angoulême
- Object type
- Watch
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Dimensions
- height 8,2 cm; width 6 cm; thickness 4 cm; diameter 6 cm
- Holding institution
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Accession / object no.
- OA 8311
- Credit line
- Musée du Louvre, Département des Objets d'art du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes
- Catalogue title (original)
- Montre "oignon" (French)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Musée du Louvre, Paris (object number OA 8311), this is a watch by Yver, made in Angoulême, France, dated 1685–1700. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver. Recorded dimensions: height 8,2 cm; width 6 cm; thickness 4 cm; diameter 6 cm. The record is illustrated with 4 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)
Fond du boîtier repoussé et gravé, décoré d'une représentation de Vénus et l'Amour sur un nuage d'après la fresque de Raphaël à la Loggia de la Farnésine : la déesse tient sur ses genoux l'Amour muni d'une flèche. Pourtour orné de lambrequins, feuilles d'acanthe et palmettes, quatre amours armés d'un trident, d'une fourche, d'un arc et d'une torche ; tout ce décor se détachant sur un fond amati. Lunette du verre ornée de lambrequins et fleurettes. Cadran à chiffres romains, gravé au centre de rinceaux à têtes d'oiseaux. Mouvement muni d'un échappement à roue de rencontre, une fusée avec chaînette. Balancier doté d'un ressort-spiral réglant ; coq circulaire découpé de rinceaux symétriques où deux oiseaux sont perchés. Hauts piliers en forme de colonnettes.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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 : Louis XIV (1643-1715) (Occident->époque moderne = Ancien Régime->dynastie des Bourbons) · · Date de création/fabrication : 1685 - 1700
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 · Technique : techniques métal (orfèvrerie)
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
Poinçon : ; importation des pays non contractants, France, 1864-1893 ; Signature : ; mouvement signé : Yver a Angouleme
Provenance
collection Jules-René Olivier (1855-1933), horloger-collectionneur ; exposition au musée Galliera en 1921, n° 262 ; legs de Marie-Julie Olivier, n° 768 ; comité du 24 janvier 1935 ; conseil du 5 février 1935 ; décret du 4 août 1935
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
The balance spring (c. 1675) improved watches dramatically and introduced the minute hand. English pair-cased verge watches with pierced balance cocks and French oignons were typical; enamel painting at Blois and Geneva, and the repeating watch (1680s), made watches objects of great refinement.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology
Atlas type guide
Verge and pair-cased watches
After Christiaan Huygens and Robert Hooke applied the balance spring around 1675, the verge watch became a reasonably reliable timekeeper and the minute hand became standard. Through the eighteenth century the typical English watch was a pair-cased verge: a fusee movement with a pierced, engraved balance cock, housed in an inner case and a separate protective outer case, often of repoussé gold, shagreen, tortoiseshell or enamel.
French watches of the same period were thicker 'oignons', later replaced by elegant thinner watches following Jean-Antoine Lépine's bar-bridge calibre of c. 1770. Dutch, Swiss and German makers supplied international markets, and verge watches were made until the mid-nineteenth century as cheaper alternatives to the cylinder and lever.
What to look for
- The pierced balance cock on the backplate: winged (continental) or with a foot (English); its style dates the watch.
- Fusee and chain visible through the movement; key winding through the dial (early) or case back.
- Hallmarks inside English silver or gold cases, which give a date letter.
- Maker's name and serial number engraved on the backplate; watch papers inside outer cases.
- Enamel dials (after c. 1720) versus earlier champlevé metal dials.
Dating clues
- Champlevé dials: c. 1680–1730; white enamel dials thereafter.
- English case hallmarks give the year of assay to within a year.
- Verge watches persisted in cheap production until c. 1850.
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:Verge escapementBalance spring (hairspring)Verge escapement
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