A10242

Early English Clockwatch

£9,500.00

Signed  Beauuais London
Circa   1690
An interesting late 17th Century English verge clockwatch in silver pair cases.
Diameter   56 mm       Depth   18.5 mm

Out of stock

Description

An interesting late 17th Century English verge clockwatch in silver pair cases.  Deep full plate fire gilt movement with unusual narrow engraved pillars. Fusee and chain with worm and wheel barrel setup between the plates, centre wheel raised to allow for the strike wheel and hammer.  Pierced and engraved winged cock, pierced and engraved foot and additional steady foot.  Plain steel balance, silver regulator disc.  Five leaf pinions in both the going and striking trains.  Hour striking on a bell in the case, pierced and engraved resting barrel, blue steel stopwork.  Silver champleve dial, arcaded minute ring, Roman and Arabic numerals, gilt hands. Pierced and engraved pair cases, unusual pierced bow. Small silver button in the bezel at eight o'clock to allow the watch to repeat the last hour.  Chased, engraved and pierced outer case, four busts around the central scene depicting King Edward IV meeting the tanner of Tamworth.

Simon Beauvais London, free of the Clockmakers Company 1690 – 1730.  An eminent maker, strike repeating watch in the Dennison collection. This interesting watch dates originally from about 1690 based on the style of the cock and use of five leaf pinions. It has been modernised about 1730, having a new dial and replacement outer case made for it. This would have been justified by the extensive work carried out to the striking mechanism which also allowed it to be used as a repeater.  From the evidence of the striking train and pillar adjacent, the movement appears to have been converted from count wheel strike with the count wheel unusually situated under the dial. This is a rare variation of the more usual configuration where the silver count wheel is visible on top of the plate.  Between 1700 and 1705 rack striking superceded the countwheel which easily lost synchronization with the hands