Mourning Pocket Watch By Gustave Sandoz, Antique Watchmaking, Chatelaine, Coat Of Arms, Heraldry, Nobility

"There is something stronger than death, it is the presence of the absent in the memory of the living." Jean d'Ormesson. What better way to remember the deceased than to wear a mourning watch? During the second third of the 19th century, several watchmakers competing with each other—Charles Oudin, Leroy et Fils, and Gustave Sandoz—offered this type of watch for sale. They were worn exclusively by women in memory of their deceased husbands. Mourning watches were often fitted with chatelaines personalized with the monogram of the deceased in most cases, or more rarely with a coat of arms, as is the case here. The coat of arms is azure with five silver mullets, arranged in a cross, for Count Antoine Louis Joseph Auguste de Perpigna (died in 1882). He married for the second time in 1844 to Elizabeth Whitfield, originally from London. The chatelaine therefore bears the English inscription "remember." The mourning watch is signed by Gustave Sandoz (1836-1891) and located at 147 Palais Royal in Paris. It was therefore made after 1865, when Gustave Sandoz founded the Sandoz watchmaking and jewelry company at that address. The watch is sold in working order.