Silver Full Hunter Niello* Pocket Watch with matching chain

Silver Full Hunter Niello* Pocket Watch

Made in the early 20^th Century

This is an exquisite sterling silver full hunter Niello* pocket watch, dating back to the early 20^th century. This pocket watch comes with a beautiful matching chain, making it a perfect gift or collector’s item!

DIAL: The white enamel dial has Arabic numerals, breguet hands and an outer minute track. It is inset with a subsidiary dial at the six. The dial and the seconds' hands are made of gold. The dial is signed “Blue Nile” in the top centre with a logo beneath.

MOVEMENT: This pocket watch is fitted with an stem wound anchor lever movement. It contains 15 jewels and is signed “Blue Nile”. The movement is currently in good working condition. However, we cannot guarantee the complete accuracy of any antique pocket watch.

CASE: The watch lies in a silver (.900) full hunter case with an all-over Niello design – a Blue Nile, with flowers and a gold inlay. The inner side of the case is signed “Blue Nile, Anchor 15 RubiseSpiral Breguet,  G. Sussmann, le Caire”  and is stamped with French hallmark as Silver with the case number: 1938260.

Diameter: 48mm      Weight: 72.3g

*Niello is a type of silverware decorated with engraved designs and filled with a clack compound. Care is needed when cleaning niello, as the piece will be damaged if the compound is removed. Never use a dip, but lightly clean the surface with a long-term silver polish to reveal the design.

 More information about NIELLO

Inspired by the great Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, a new type of ornamented watch case appeared in the early 1900s. The Niello watch case became a canvas for outstanding artworks that will never be duplicated. The term niello comes from the Latin word nigellum which is the diminutive of Niger (black). It was a technique used by the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Persians. Niello is a black or blackish-blue composition of lead, silver, copper, sulphur, and ammonium chloride. The mixture is fused onto an engraved or cut-out metal base by firing the mix in a process like champlevé enamelling. Silver was the most often used metal for niello objects since the soft white-silver colour contrasted beautifully with the darker niello and tri-colour effects were achieved using rose gold, niello, and silver. When the niello was heated and fired onto a silver watch case, it fused with the silver very strongly, as if it were soldered in place. The niello would be filled, finished, and polished, leaving the surface of the watch case smooth and flat. One can readily assume that the process of engraving the areas which were to be filled with niello, the firing stages, and the finishing stages was very time-consuming and therefore costly. Aside from the production end, the niello cases also had to be designed by artists who would predetermine the subject matter and then the cases were finished by engravers who produced the fine details.

Longines of St. Imer also played a prominent role in the design and marketing of decorative watches during the early 1900s. Longines products not only had fine movements, but the cases were always interesting and attractive in design.

The Art Nouveau and Art Deco influences were the main artistic impulses behind these rare niello cases. The Art Nouveau period was rich in free-flowing designs featuring animals, flowers, and themes inspired by nature. The period began in the early 1890s and was influenced by the symbolist movement in art and literature. The Nouveau approach to art and design emphasized figurative subject matter, imagination, and expressive quality which contrasted with the older, more rigid Victorian styles.

A premier jewellery designer of the period was René Lalique of Paris. His creations were remarkable for their imagination. The motifs most often used were based on nature, mystical design, and exotic Asian art forms.

The Art Nouveau movement also used symbolism as a main part of the design by using certain from the natural or spiritual world, the art and jewel objects took on an expressive quality that represented a certain emotion or mood. Flowers were thought to have a language of their own. The rose, for example, represented youth and beauty, while the lily of the valley was recognized as a symbol of happiness. Animal figures were also associated with certain emotions.

Niello watch cases are unique in that they exhibit influences of both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco schools. The Art Deco period dates from 1925 to the 1940s, and the design chromatic contrast, and linear styling. With the discovery of Tutankhamun in 1922, designers began using scarabs, obelisks, and other motifs drawn from ancient Egyptian Art.

The value levels for niello enamel-cased watches are based on both the design or subject matter and the condition of the watch. Hunter cases will be valued higher than open-face cases. Another key to value is condition. Like any enamelled object, scratches, chips, and flakes will diminish value, while examples in mint condition will command a strong premium. Pocket watches were often carried daily and put in a pocket along with coins and other small objects, leading to damage and wear. A niello in pristine condition is a rarity, and this condition is indicative of an “old stock” piece or one that was never carried.

The wonderful period of art design which led to the development of the niello period quickly passed. By 1929, the world economy was affected by the Wall Street crash, and the pocket watch market was declining quickly. Much of the decline was due to the increasing popularity of the bracelet watch or wristwatch. Hunter case watches were the first to disappear and open face cases were not far behind. All of this leads to the fact that Niello’s, a representative form of an outstanding period in design, were produced in limited numbers. We will never again see such a magnificent “niche” in the art of watch case design and decoration.

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