in the form of two sea griffins back-to-back in enamelled gold, graduated in colour from dark to light blue applied over a silver foil, suspending an oval shaped blister pearl at its centre, dropping from a rectangular enamel plaque with pearl chains, with three pearl tassels hanging from the base.
Accompanied by a period yellow gold and pearl chain.
Watt trained as an architect, later teaching himself metalworking and enamelling, inspired by artists such as Alexander Fisher (1864-1936) and Phoebe Traquair (1842-1936).
He was a keen botanist, traveller and collector and assembled an extraordinary collection of Chinese hardstone carvings, porcelain, enamels and bronzes, which are now housed in the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Royal Scottish Museum. The array of vivid colours and the abstract forms which decorate these objects clearly proved a fruitful source of inspiration. So too were the Celtic designs carved into stones which Watt would have seen across Scotland.
In 1911, Watt worked with the English architect and goldsmith Henry Wilson (1864-1934) to complete a bronze tomb to commemorate Bishop Elphinstone, co-founder of the University of Aberdeen. Watt also worked closely with the artist Douglas Strachan (1875-1950), who was famed for his sumptuous stained-glass designs and completed two striking portraits of Watt.
