BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//eluceo/ical//2.0/EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:3a778d80efcc6486ede2544c2428e250 DTSTAMP:20260404T075208Z SUMMARY:a-rare-unusual-and-slim-20ct-gold-open-faced-ruby-cylinder-watch-wi th-slavonic-chapter-ring-spelling-troubetzko-with-gold-chain-and-ratchet-k ey - Date de vente : 09/11/2025 DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : A rare\, unusual and slim 20ct gold open-faced ru by-cylinder watch with Slavonic chapter ring spelling ТРУБЕЦКОИ [ Troubetzkoï] with gold chain and ratchet key\n\n14’’’ gilded moveme nt\, ruby cylinder escapement\, plain three-arm gold balance\, parachute s uspension\, flat blued steel hairspring\, broad blued steel index regulato r with raised nodule for adjustment through cuvette aperture\n\nsilver eng ine-turned dial\, repeated secret Breguet signature between 11 and 1 o’c lock\, eccentric satin finished chapter the numerals replaced by Slavonic characters spelling Troubetzkoï\, pearled outer minute ring\, chapters wi th crémaillère borders\, off-set dial centre with damier guilloché patt ern\, dial edge à grains d’orge\, satin finished oval panel signed Breg uet\, both hands of Breguet form - gold hour and later metal minute hand\, square open aperture for adjusting hands to central boss\n\n20ct gold cas e\, the back engine-turned à grains d’orge\, centred by polished circul ar cartouche and engraved initials possibly P. T.\, engine-turned silver b and\, cuvette with apertures for winding\, regulation and securing screw\, cuvette signed Breguet Horger de la Marine Royale\, No. 3721\, twin crém aillère borders\, case back interior with Breguet & Tavernier numbers B 3 721\, T 3815\, Paris assay and discharge marks comprising baby’s head 2 in irregular cartouche (2nd standard gold 840/1000)\, Pegasus 2 in irregul ar hexagonal frame (840/1000\, 1819-1838)\, MAB beneath a triangle in loze nge cartouche for Tavernier workshop\, interior of cuvette with Tavernier ’s mark and baby’s head assay repeated\, additional ram’s head warra nty mark (1819-1838)\n\nMeasurements\n\ndiameter 35mm\n\ndepth 7.8mm\n\nwe ight 37.8g (including chain)\n\nweight 33g (approx. without chain)\n\nchai n length 145mm\n\nAccompaniments\n\nwith a short Breguet chain and double ended ratchet key with Sir David Salomons small gold collection roundel\, no. 110 and a Breguet 250th anniversary certificate\n\nHis Highness Prince Nicholas Troubetzkoï (pour Malicheff) 1821.\n\nLouis Desoutter 1922.\n\n Sir David Salomons Collection No. 110 (F)\, purchased from the above.\n\nC hristie’s\, The Celebrated Collection of Watches by Breguet\, Part II\, 1 June 1965\, lot 21\, purchased by George Daniels for 400 Guineas\, $1\,1 76.\n\nCurrent Collection\, purchased through George Daniels as above.\n\n Sir David Salmons\, Breguet 1747-1823\, French Edition\, 1923.\n\nDaniels\ , George\, The Art of Breguet\, London & New York: Sotheby Parke\, Bernet\ , 1975\, p. 259\, figs. 301 a-b.\n\nBreguet\, Emmanuel\, Breguet Watchmake rs since 1775\, Revised and Expanded Edition\, Swan Éditeur\, 2016\, p. 2 20\, fig. 259.\n\nThe dial of Prince Troubetzkoï’s Breguet watch is hig hly unusual in its use of Slavonic characters in place of conventional num erals on the chapter ring. By this period\, the ornate letter forms of Chu rch Slavonic had been almost entirely removed from secular Russian life\, following Peter the Great’s introduction of the simplified Civil Script (Grazhdansky Shrift) in the early eighteenth century. By the early ninetee nth century\, Slavonic script survived almost solely within the liturgical realm of the Orthodox Church\, its use outside religious texts increasing ly rare.\n\nIn this light\, the use of Slavonic characters on Troubetzkoy ’s watch may have been intended as a subtle gesture of cultural or spiri tual identity\, reflecting the enduring resonance of traditional symbols w ithin Russia’s Enlightenment elite.\n\nBreguet and the Russian Market\n\ nThe Russian market was one that Abraham-Louis Breguet was keen to develop \, and efforts to establish a firm foothold there began in earnest during the first years of the 19th century. Initially leveraging diplomatic chann els through the Russian embassy in Paris\, Breguet began supplying watches to dealers and watchmakers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1808\, he sen t his salesman Lazare Moreau to establish a dedicated Russian branch\, nam ed La Maison de Russie\, in St. Petersburg.\n\nMoreau quickly gained acces s to elite circles\, securing audiences with Tsar Alexander I and ultimate ly helping Breguet obtain the prestigious titles of Watchmaker to His Maje sty and the Imperial Navy. Despite this early success\, tensions arose bet ween Breguet and Moreau—Breguet expressing concerns over Moreau’s reco rd-keeping and suspecting him of overreaching his authority as his represe ntative. Nonetheless\, the initiative proved commercially fruitful. By 180 9\, sales to Russia had risen dramatically\, with 55% of Breguet’s annua l output (74 pieces) destined for Russian clients. While many of these pas sed through the Maison de Russie\, others were purchased directly from Bre guet in Paris.1\n\nThis flourishing trade came to an abrupt halt in Decemb er 1810\, following the breakdown of the Franco-Russian alliance originall y forged by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807). That same month\, Tsar Alexander I issued a ukase prohibiting the importation of French goods\, delivering a direct blow to Breguet’s operations in Russia. In the aftermath\, More au left Russia for England in the spring of 1811\, abandoning Breguet’s equipment and materials as well as many unpaid client debts – a devastat ing commercial setback.\n\nUnder the terms of the 1807 alliance\, Russia h ad committed to enforcing Napoleon’s Continental System\, a blockade int ended to isolate Britain economically. However\, the policy had severely d amaged Russia’s own trade interests. By late 1810\, Alexander had begun to reject French influence outright\, both economically and politically. N apoleon’s annexation of the Duchy of Oldenburg (ruled by relatives of th e Tsar) and his support for a revived Polish state were viewed in St. Pete rsburg as direct provocations. Tensions escalated rapidly\, culminating in Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812\, which ended in the n ear-total destruction of the French army. Although the conflict continued until Napoleon’s abdication in 1814\, Russia emerged as a dominant post- war power and played a leading role at the Congress of Vienna\, which perm anently redrew the European balance.\n\nTrade between Breguet and Russia r esumed swiftly once political conditions stabilised. On 2nd April 1814\, b efore Napoleon’s fall\, Tsar Alexander I personally visited Breguet at t he Quai de l’Horloge while staying in Paris with Talleyrand. Almost from that moment\, Russian patronage began to recover steadily\, and by 1823\, the year of Breguet’s death\, Russian clients accounted for approximate ly 20 percent of total sales\, restoring Russia’s position as one of the firm’s most important international markets.2\n\nPrince Nikolai Nikitic h Troubetzkoy (1744-1821)\n\nPrince Nikolai Nikitich Troubetzkoï\, was a senior member of the ancient Trubetskoy princely family and part of the en lightened Moscow aristocracy of Catherine the Great’s reign. A writer an d translator\, he contributed to Moskovskie ezhemesiachnye sochineniya ( “Moscow Monthly Writings”) and produced Russian versions of articles f rom Diderot’s Encyclopédie. Deeply engaged in the city’s intellectual life\, he was associated with the publisher Nikolai Novikov and the Mason ic and Martinist circles that flourished among Moscow’s educated elite i n the late eighteenth century.\n\nIn 1792\, following the government’s i nvestigation of Novikov’s activities\, Troubetzkoï was placed under sup ervision at his estate in Nikitovka\, in the Livny district. Restored to f avour under Emperor Paul I\, he was appointed senator and awarded the Orde r of St Anna (1st class) in 1797\, later attaining the rank of Actual Priv y Councillor.\n\nTroubetzkoï spent his final years in Kostroma\, he purch ased this Breguet watch on 20 March 1821 and died later the same year.\n\n 1 Breguet\, Emmanuel\, Breguet Watchmakers since 1775\, Revised and Expand ed Edition\, Swan Éditeur\, 2016\, p. 224.\n\n2 Ibid\, p. 226. DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251109 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR