Featured Belgian Pocket Watch Case and Glass Brooch

Picked up these two at a flea market today. The woman running the stand said the case was silver, but it has some veridigris on it. It's pretty worn, but I liked the engraving enough to justify purchasing, even if it wasn't silver.

It is engraved with the coat of arms and names of different cities. I can only make out Antverp, Haunaui, namur, Luxembourg, and a name that looks like Brabant. The lions are standing over a banner with letters that look like L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE

On the side of the watch appear to be the letters LÉGA, possibly with a L at the end. The inside of the case has some illegible markings and the numbers 193478.

The brooch looks like it has some art glass. I'm trying to figure out how old it is and where it came from. Any ideas?

 

Thank you. I'm illiterate when it comes to geography, haha.
I wish I could make out the remaining cities.

 

I don't think so. There isn't enough room between the L and the E for there to be a third letter, and the letters are in uppercase. Might be LECA.

 

"l'union fait la force" and the remnants show the crest of Belgium. nonetheless earlier (15th to 17th c.) the three countries were known as the pays bas (low countries). if it was used as a rememberance of strength, then rather during WWI. since WWII the Dutch are called "five day heroes" by the Belgian.

 

Sorry, I should have clarified: It isn't near one of the emblems. It's on the side of the watch case. It might be LEGAU, with or without additional letters after that.

 

Assuming it does date to WWI, do you think I did all right for 12 euros?

 

only thing to do is to open that we can have a glance at the work and call the one and only @af to have a look if it's Swiss or English. I'd go for the first, of course...

 

It's empty, unfortunately. Just the case.

 

then I doubt it was a good investment. you could still try and list it on the belgium oyboy and look wha's happening. where are you ?

 

Germany.
I'll probably just hold onto it. I found a couple other pieces of jewelry today that will offset its cost, I figure.

 

That would be Hainault. These are all Belgian provinces. Lega could be Légia, the name of a brook that flows into the river Meuse in the city of Liège. It was at one time thought the city was called after the brook, so Legia could be used for Liège. Liège is also the name of the province of which Liège is the capital.
The central lion is the ancient Brabant lion, which became the symbol of the Belgian kings. It still is to this day.

Brabant is split between the Netherlands and Belgium (my Brabant heart weeps over this), Luxembourg is split between Luxembourg and Belgium.
The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg were one country at one time, the way it was divided had to do with the politics of the time, not with the cultural identity.

Always an issue in Belgium, unification. They are still together.

I don't think this watch case has anything to do with WWI, but rather with the Belgian coherence, and Walloon dominance under the guise of 'unity'.
The Walloons, the French-speaking Belgians, were dominant for a very long time. French was the official language, even though the majority of the population spoke Flemish (Dutch). The Flemish (including other Dutch-speaking Belgians), wanted equal rights, and many wanted independence. That is still the case.
The independence movement became very strong ca 1870, and reached its peak just after WWI.
All this time the Walloons were desperately trying to hold on to their power. The Flemish language was only given (relative) equal rights in 1932.

The verdigris could be a result of the relatively low silver fineness.

 

then you can easily list it on ebaeee Deutschland, because many Belgians do list and look around there as well. the advantage of being the biggest online-market on the continent.

 

Wow, I can't believe you found it! Thank you!
I wonder if mine is just silver-plated as well. I thought steel couldn't develop verdigris. (Then again, I thought the same about silver.)

 

Great find!!!!