Some pocket watches are signed Berthoud or Cartier, for example. These are genuine watches signed by homonymous makers. Does this increase their value?
Osvaldo Patrizzi, chairman of Antiquorum: Watches such as this do exist. Already, certain watchmakers were cunning enough to try and take advantage of their illustrious contemporaries’ reputation to sell their own production. However, these apocryphal or homonymous signatures never add to the value of the watch. One might come across watches signed “Louis Berthoud”, “Ferdinand Berthoud”, “Abraham Louis Bréguet” or “Julien Leroy”, among others. Unfortunately, collectors are sometimes taken in. This is why it’s important to learn to recognise and distinguish signatures, something which applies to the arts in general. As a reference work, I recommend Le dictionnaire des horlogers genevois, published by Antiquorum, 1998.
Related Questions
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