.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Extremely well preserved and of impressive proportions, the present complicated watch was evidently made as a special order, very likely finished by the Eppner workshop in Breslau and using a LeCoultre movement. The seven complications are: minute repeating, chronograph, perpetual calendar, date, days of the week, months and moon phases.
The half-hunter front cover having the twelve letter name “Schaffgotsch” spelled out in place of the usual 1-12 numerals, a very unusual and individual feature. The Schaffgotsch family is one of the oldest noble Silesian families extant, dating back to the thirteenth century. Prussian Silesia reverted to Poland after World War II.
The case itself is constructed from heavy-gauge pink gold with the beautifully engraved coat of arms of the Schaffgotsch family on the back cover. Friedrich Graf (Count) Schaffgotsch (1883-1947) must certainly have appreciated fine watchmaking and it seems he enjoyed presenting complicated watches as gifts. Another almost identical watch made for him by Eppner but using an Audemars Piguet movement was sold in these rooms on 15th November 2004, lot 92. Interestingly, that watch was dated for presentation in September 1913, only two months before the present watch.
A. Eppner & Co., a watch manufacture in Silberberg near Breslau, was founded by Eduard Eppner (1812-1887). After an apprenticeship with his brother Wilhelm, the owner of Eppner & Co., La Chaux-de-Fonds, Eduard opened his own workshop in Halle in 1835. Over the years, the company grew and flourished and after the move to Silberberg in 1869, Eppner also trained apprentices. He specialized in the production of high quality pocket watches, clocks and attendance recorders. After Eduard's death his brothers Albert and Emil continued the family business.
The half-hunter front cover having the twelve letter name “Schaffgotsch” spelled out in place of the usual 1-12 numerals, a very unusual and individual feature. The Schaffgotsch family is one of the oldest noble Silesian families extant, dating back to the thirteenth century. Prussian Silesia reverted to Poland after World War II.
The case itself is constructed from heavy-gauge pink gold with the beautifully engraved coat of arms of the Schaffgotsch family on the back cover. Friedrich Graf (Count) Schaffgotsch (1883-1947) must certainly have appreciated fine watchmaking and it seems he enjoyed presenting complicated watches as gifts. Another almost identical watch made for him by Eppner but using an Audemars Piguet movement was sold in these rooms on 15th November 2004, lot 92. Interestingly, that watch was dated for presentation in September 1913, only two months before the present watch.
A. Eppner & Co., a watch manufacture in Silberberg near Breslau, was founded by Eduard Eppner (1812-1887). After an apprenticeship with his brother Wilhelm, the owner of Eppner & Co., La Chaux-de-Fonds, Eduard opened his own workshop in Halle in 1835. Over the years, the company grew and flourished and after the move to Silberberg in 1869, Eppner also trained apprentices. He specialized in the production of high quality pocket watches, clocks and attendance recorders. After Eduard's death his brothers Albert and Emil continued the family business.