Beautiful fine turquoise and diamond watch. Rossel et Fils, Succrs de J. F. Bautte & Cie, Genève, circa 1860 fine 18 ct. gold watch pave set with rose cut diamonds between each cabochon turquoise with a matching chatelaine brooch. White enamel face with Roman numerals. The story I have been told by the person who owned it is that this watch was purchased by his grandfather as a gift to his grandmother.
The most celebrated of the Geneva bijoutiers horlogers (makers of watches, watch cases, snuff boxes and other small objects of vertu) in the first half of the 19th century was Jean-François Bautte (1772-1837). Jean-François was the son of Abraham Bautte, an enameller and partner in 1765 of Louis Galopin, and his wife Marie Anne Mare. On 19 May 1789, he was formally apprenticed to Moulinié & Blanchot, watchcase makers, both of whom had been received as masters the previous year. Jacques-Dauphin Moulinié (1761-1838) and Jean-François Bautte registered a company together in 1796, stating that it had been in existence since 1 August 1793 with a 9 year contract. On 1 October 1804, a new company, Moulinié, Bautte & Co., was created for 4 years with the addition of Jean-Gabriel Moynier (1772-1840), this time not just as watch case makers but 'pour la commerce d'horlogerie et bijouterie' (for trade in watchmaking and objects of vertu). From 1808 until 1821 when Moulinié retired, the firm was known as Moulinié, Bautte & Moynier, and subsequently, until 1826, as Bautte & Moynier. The business was continued as J.F. Bautte & Cie., even after Jean-François's death in 1837, by his son Jacques and son-in-law Jean Samuel Rossel, until 1855 when it became Rossel-Bautte & Cie. and in 1860 it became Rossel et fils.