Bronikoff

Property from the Masterworks of Time Collection

Bronikoff

A rare open-faced wood and ivory cylinder watch with wood link chain

Circa 1860

• Movement: wooden bridges, wheel train and escape wheel, ivory cylinder, wooden balance wheel, blued steel hairspring

• Dial: wood, partially exposed train, ivory roundels carrying Arabic numerals, subsidiary seconds, wooden hands

• Case: burr wood case, hinged back with turned bezel, front bezel broken and detached, inside back signed in Cyrillic Bronikoff in Viatka, with outer wooden protective case

• Chain: with round wooden links, terminating to one side with a ratchet key and hook and to the other with a clip

diameter 50mm, chain length approximately 300mm

For an almost identical watch by Bronikoff, also with chain and wooden protective box, see Replica Shoes 's New York, 8 June 2006, lot 38. A further example signed in Cyrillic, Bronikoff & Son, can be found in the Patek Philippe Museum Geneva and is illustrated in P. Friess, The Emergence of the Portable Watch, Vol. IV, INV. S-786, p. 603.

S. I. Bronikoff was the son of a carpenter and learnt the craft himself while making laquer boxes and spoons. Today he is best known for the fascinating and unusual watches that he made in wood and ivory. He gained recognition for his skill within his own lifetime, and at the 1870 Exhibition in St. Petersburg, Bronikoff won the Honour Prize for works in Wood & Ivory.