DESCRIPTION:
EPW - Henry Hoffman, Locle, 44mm, heavy 18K gold original HC with small Jurgensen-style lips, signed gold cuvette, bow with chain guards, white enamel SS dial, SW-bow-set, fully capped lever escapement with counterpoise, 20-21J, fausses-côtes pattern nickel damascene, s#36390 to cuvette. Comes with its original fitted wooden box which contains a Henry Hoffman certificate, an original sales receipt dated to 1870 showing a $185 purchase price for this watch from Bigelow, Kennard & Co. of Boston, and an extra glass crystal wrapped in tissue paper beneath the lid of the boxes second compartment. Box, certificate, and sales receipt are all marked with s#36390 correctly matching to the present watch. Gross weight of assembled watch 55.8 dwt (86.8 g). A beautiful and complete original example with sales receipt showing its impressive $185 original purchase price. At 44mm diameter this piece straddles the line for its era of potentially either being a relatively small gentleman's watch or of being a relatively large lady's pendant watch. We find the bow-setting mechanism in the style of Jules Jurgensen of this example to be very intriguing as this is a feature seldom encountered on a product without the Jurgensen family name.
CONDITION:
Mvt: Running, excellent cosmetic mvt condition overall, haze to portions of plate surfaces; dial with its seconds-register evidently re-glued being slightly out of index and having a small bit of glue excess at its upper edge, dial otherwise flawless; excellent hands, some small bits of finish loss to minute, hour and minute are plum colored, seconds-hand is blue; case front needing to be manually opened as lift spring is not opening lid under its own power, case shows very little wear, no dents or dings, excellent engine turning detail; tight bow, crown shows very little wear; good glass crystal; box in excellent cosmetic condition overall, exterior showing little wear, some mild scratches and nicks, interior mostly excellent though with tearing and fraying of the silk ribbons of the upper lid liner, one wooden slat from inside inner surface of upper lid is currently loose but is present and hopefully awaits its next owner to glue it back in position.
ESTIMATE:
$1800
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$2600
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