[WARHOL ANDY]: (1928-1987) American artist, a leading figure in the pop art movement. Warhol's personal 14K gold open face pocket watch by E. Howard & Co., Boston, measuring 1.75" in diameter, with an opening hinged glass cover to the front, the watch face on a second hinge to reveal the inner working mechanism and the inside of the back casing engraved with the makers name, serial number (148873) and 14K mark. The back of the outer casing is attractively engraved with a monogram. Contained in a modern black watch case. VG

 

Provenance: The pocket watch was acquired by our vendor at The Andy Warhol Collection auction held by Sotheby's, New York, 23rd April - 3^rd May 1988 (Collectibles, Jewelry, Furniture, Decorations and Paintings, 24^th - 26^th April 1988, lot 619) and their lot label tag is still adjoined to the watch with string. The complete set of auction catalogues (6 vols) for The Andy Warhol Collection is also included in the present lot.

 

E. Howard & Co. was a clock and watch company formed by Edward Howard and Charles Rice in 1858, after the demise of the Boston Watch Company. Howard was to buy out Rice's interest and thereafter sought to make high quality watches based on his own unique designs and eccentric production methods (a factor which, perhaps, Warhol appreciated).

 

'After his death in 1987 from complications following gallbladder surgery, 313 watches were found at Warhol's East 66th Street townhouse and sold at Sotheby's the following year in a landmark 10-day auction, along with over 10,000 other objects. It was the first time such a sizable cache of fine watches belonging to the same owner had come to market, and it captured the imagination of collectors worldwide. Value was no longer attached solely to the build of a timepiece; price could now be magnified by the object's journey. It sure helped that Warhol had an astute eye as well as an adventure-packed life. Markedly different from the pop aesthetic he had championed, the watches were classic and refined. And unlike the to-and-fro of his iconic silk screens at auction, the watches seldom reappear to feed an ever-hungrier market' (from 'Oh, Yeah. I have Some of Those': How Andy Warhol Amassed One of the World's Most Formidable Watch Collections', by Mark C. O'Flaherty, published in the RobbReport, 14^th November 2020)