This silver 950 Elgin pocket watch (Birmingham markings on the crown and inside of the rear covers) is equipped with a 6 Elgin 151 hunter caliber manufactured approximately in 1898, with 7 rubies and secondary peripheral. This mechanism was manufactured in only 49,000 copies. The watch has a diameter of 52 mm and a total thickness of 15 mm, and the mechanism has a diameter of 41.9 mm and a height of 6.6 mm. The bimetallic balancer, provided with compensation screws, performs 18,000 alternations per hour, and the motor spring ensures, fully loaded, a 34-hour power reserve. The mechanism, with the series 25210591, is of a shiny gold (the photos failed to capture its beauty) and is marked Elgin Natl Watches U.S.A. The swing deck is very beautifully engraved manually (see photo 4, 6, 12, 14, 17 and 19). The Dennison 950 silver casing (markings on the lid for both the manufacturer and the metal title) is in perfect condition. All three caps stamp the same series: 421296. The enamel dial, with Roman numerals and superb thermally blue cathedral indicators, specific to the period, is in excellent condition. The front cover, engraved with Roman figures, has a round opening, through which you can see the position of the indicators. When rigging, the clock makes a sound like crickets, and the sound produced by the moving gears is one of the most melodious of the entire watchmaking (perhaps due to the silver casing, which acts as a resonance box). But what makes this watch truly unique is the inscription engraved on the back: „For A. Muller Ury, best portraitist and devoted friend, 1923, Sir Joseph Duveen”. This watch is a true museum piece, according to the inscription it belonged to Joseph Duveen, considered the greatest art dealer of all time, and was given to one of his best friends, the painter Adolfo Muller Ury, who takes it made 3 portraits of Duveen.
Adolfo Muller Ury (March 29, 1862 – July 6, 1947) was an American painter, born in Switzerland. A portraitist, in particular, but also an impressionist, A. Muller Ury came from a family of vase patricians of Switzerland, being the sixth of the 19 children of the family. The largest public collections of his work can be found at The Historisches Museum von Uri (Altdorf, Switzerland), which holds ten canvases, including a large canvas. Joseph Duveen’s portrait has been painted by several artists, but the best one was one by his friend, Adolfo Muller-Ury. In fact, he painted it three times, in 1923, 1929 and 1938. The 1923 portrait, considered the best of all, was reproduced on the cover of Meryle Secrest’s 2004 biography, and later sold to TEFAF Maastricht in 2006. A Muller Ury is also the author of portraits of American presidents as well as most of the American billionaires of the time.
Anyone who admired Gainsborough’s „Blue Boy” from the Huntington Collection in California, or „Aristotle looking at Homer’s bust,” from Rembrandt, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and other Renaissance masterpieces, owes this pleasure. , this privilege to be in front of a great work of art by Joseph Duveen. Considered the most influential and greatest art dealer of all time, Duveen sold the European masterpieces of Titian, Botticelli, Giotto, Vermeer or Da Vinci to the wealthy wealthy American billionaires – J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Huntington, Samuel H. Kress, Henry Clay Frick, William Randolph Hearst and Andrew Mellon, just to name a few. It is no exaggeration to say that Joseph Duveen is behind every major private art collection in the United States. Joseph Duveen (October 14, 1869 – May 25, 1939), the first of 13 children in his family, inherited the ability to see a true treasure in the occupation of his father, the owner of a thriving antique business. After the death of his father, Duveen moved the company to the more risky but profitable painting market and became the world’s leading art dealer. He made a fortune by buying art from declining European aristocrats and selling it to American billionaires. He made many philanthropic donations and contributed to the repair and extension of many British art galleries, which in 1919 brought him the title of knight, and in 1927 that of baron. The rapid rise of the tireless and enterprising dealer, from his humble beginnings to the top of the pyramid, the key to Duveen’s success, was his simple observation that while Europe had art, America had the money!
4.500 EUR