Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
18ct lever plunge quarter repeating pocket watch by Barwise, London, hallmarked London 1831
- Maker / attribution
- Barwise (maker)
- Date
- 1831 (hallmarked London)
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Dimensions
- Diameter 52 mm
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 11, lot 355
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 355, The Watch Auction, Gardiner Houlgate (21st October 2020)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Barwise, London - good 18ct lever plunge quarter repeating pocket watch, London 1831, fusee gilt three-quarter plate movement signed Barwise, London, no. 12/025, with engraved balance cock, regulator (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 11, lot 355), this is a pocket watch by Barwise, made in London, England, dated 1831 (hallmarked London). The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Recorded dimensions: Diameter 52 mm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate
Barwise, London - good 18ct lever plunge quarter repeating pocket watch, London 1831, fusee gilt three-quarter plate movement signed Barwise, London, no. 12/025, with engraved balance cock, regulator and bimetallic compensated balance, the cuvette signed Barwise, London and numbered 12/025, engine turned gilt dial with Roman numerals, outer dot minute markers, subsidiary seconds dial and blued steel moon hands, within an engine turned case with gadrooned band, case maker 'LC', 119.9gm, 52mm - ** John Barwise worked between 1790 and 1843 - ** Copy of 'A Complicated Watch from the English Firm of John Barwise', NAWCC Bulletin, pages 166 - 167, April 1994
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
From 1750 to 1850 the watch became a precision instrument. Mudge's lever escapement, the cylinder escapement, Lépine's thin bar calibre, Breguet's innovations (overcoil, tourbillon, perpétuelle) and the pocket chronometer of Arnold and Earnshaw all date from this period, while verge watches remained common in cheaper production.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Repeating watches
Before electric light, telling the time in the dark was a real problem. Repeating watches strike the time on demand when a slide or push-piece is operated: quarter repeaters sound hours and quarters, minute repeaters hours, quarters and minutes. Edward Barlow and Daniel Quare disputed the invention in London in the 1680s. Early repeaters struck on a bell inside the case; Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced the gong (a coiled steel wire) around 1780, allowing thinner watches.
Repeaters require a separate train with racks, snails and a governor to control the striking speed, and are among the most demanding complications to make and adjust. Swiss makers of the Vallée de Joux specialised in repeating ébauches in the nineteenth century.
What to look for
- A slide on the case band or a push-piece through the pendant.
- Gongs encircling the movement (after c. 1780) or a bell in the case (earlier); pierced case for sound.
- The racks, snails and governor visible under the dial or on the movement.
- Terms such as 'Minutes', 'Quarts' or 'Répétition' on the dial or cuvette.
Dating clues
- Bell-striking quarter repeaters: c. 1690–1800.
- Gong repeaters and dumb repeaters (striking on the case): after c. 1780.
- Minute repeaters became more common after c. 1830 with Vallée de Joux ébauches.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Minute repeaterMinute repeater
Related records
Pocket Watches · c. 1821
Pocket watch no. 8409 by Barwise
Royal Museums Greenwich
Pocket Watches · 1815
Gold Pocket Chronometer by Barwise, 1815
WatchMuseum.org shop
Clocks · c. 1800–1810
Bracket clock by Barwise, London, c. 1800–1810
Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London
Clocks · c. 1810
Regulator by Barwise, St Martin's Lane, London, c. 1810
Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London
Pocket Watches · c. 1740–60
Watch by Charles Cabrier II, England, c. 1740–60 (The Met 17.190.1458)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Pocket Watches · c. 1740–60
Watch by Charles Cabrier II, England, c. 1740–60 (The Met 17.190.1461)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Pocket Watches · c. 1751–52
Watch by John Rich, England, c. 1751–52
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Pocket Watches · c. 1753
Gold watch, signed 'Jno. Ellicott, London, 3719', the inner case pierced and engraved, with a casemaker's mark 'JB', London, about 1753
Victoria and Albert Museum, London