Handle with Watch

Location: France, Paris

Materials: gold and platinum, translucent and painted enamel, glass paste, sapphires and diamonds

Dimensions: height 7.5 cm

Accession Number: FR 66

Other Notes:

The Goldsmith, chaser and engraver Edouard Husson is recorded as working from two addresses in Paris: 42 rue Sainte Anne and later 29 rue du 4 Septembre. His maker’s mark consisted of his name in letters in a horizontal lozenge. In February 1911, he was granted the autorisation de la garantie.

The particular combination of enamel colours on this handle – translucent emerald green and Prussian blue, applied over an intricately engine-turned ground – appears to have been favoured by Husson. Occasionally this pairing was further embellished with en grisaille painted cameos and diamond-set borders. Both Boucheron and Tiffany sold his elaborately conceived works.

Bibliography:

Haydn Williams, Enamels of the World: 1700-2000 The Khalili Collections, London 2009, cat. 291, p. 411.