Their form and decoration varied widely, from rectangular boxes depicting pastoral landscapes to figural boxes of, say, fruits or animals.

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The only other known bowl of the same size, form and almost identical decoration has been in the collection of the British Museum in London for over 60 years, according to Sotheby's.

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The only known bowl of the same form, size and almost identical decoration has been in the collection of the British Museum in London for more than 60 years, after being left to the museum by the prominent British collector Henry J Oppenheim in 1947.

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The geometry of the bridges, the oscillating weight and the decoration, displayed through the sapphire crystal back of the watch, form the image of a garden pavilion in the Mediterranean style, identical to the stately residences of Caroline Murat.

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Decoration, after all, implies dissembling, something that would become anathema to the form-follows-function crowd.

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