Christie's to auction a Thomas Jefferson rare timepiece

A watch owned by United States’ third President Thomas Jefferson, is one of the rare pieces to be auction at Christie's Americana Week 2010 sale, slated for New York City on January 21st. The watch was put up for auction by an Americana collector Mark Bortman’s daughter Jane Bortman Larus.

The auction house estimates the watch’s sale price to be between $40,000 and $80,000. The watch is crafted as an engraved gold watch key containing a lock of hair belonging to Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, reports say. Martha Jefferson's birth and death dates are engraved on the front of the watch key and the back is a clear case through which the braided hair is visible, reports say. The watch is believed to be crafted in England or France in the time period between 1784 and 1789, reports say.