Footnotes

• The present lot was formerly owned by well-known French songwriter and performer, Roland Gerbeau.
  
  Gerbeau was born in Vincennes, France, in 1919 to a working class family. After the untimely death of his father, he was forced to work at age 13 as an apprentice printer. He loved to sing, however, and in 1937, aged 18, he won an amateur singing radio competition which convinced him to pursue a career in singing. He was discovered singing in the cabaret Medrano Circus, by famous French singer/songwriter Charles Trenet, celebrated for writing such songs as 'La Mer' and 'Douce France', both of which were performed and recorded by Gerbeau.
  
  From 1942 to 1944, Gerbeau followed Trenet on a tour of France where he was met with extraordinary success, performing the songs of Trenet in front of crowds of thousands of people.
  
  In 1946, Gerbeau recorded the French song 'Amour Bleu' ('blue love'), an ode to youthful love. The present lot was a gift to Gerbeau on the release of this song, by a love from his teenage years. The inside case of the wristwatch bears a romantic french inscription which translates as, 'Rose-Marie, to his big blue love, 1943-1947'.
  
  Gerbeau resides in Paris.

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Category: Jewellery

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