GLOSSED IN ANTIQUITY

What do the adventures of Vasco da Gama, the Chinese year of the dog, and a paper-and-silk hot air balloon that glided over Paris in 1783 have in common? They — and their topical kith and kin — have all been depicted as part of Vacheron Constantin’s Métiers d’Art programme, which invites watch lovers to journey through time via the almost unfathomable creative brio of its master artisans.

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Now, as part of a partnership with the Louvre instigated in 2019, and inspired by the artefacts contained within that institution’s hallowed walls, one of just a handful of still-operational manufactures that lived through the French revolution is adding four new pieces, all with pink-gold cases and limited to five units each, to the Métiers d’Art canon, each dedicated to one of the great civilisations of antiquity.

Paying a visit to the Ancient Egyptian empire, one of the four pieces depicts the Grand Sphinx de Tanis, a granite sculpture discovered in the ruins of the Temple of Amun-Ra in what was once Egypt’s capital, Tanis. Those who have visited the Louvre as scholars of antiquity even further to the east, meanwhile, will recognise the Frieze of Lions, a glazed-brick decoration found in the courtyard of the palace of Darius the Great in Susa, modern-day Iran.

Read the full feature in Issue 82 of The Rake – on newsstands now.

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