Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
George III silver and tortoiseshell verge triple cased pocket watch by George Prior, hallmarked London 1808
- Maker / attribution
- George Prior (maker)
- Date
- 1808 (hallmarked London)
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- silver, tortoiseshell
- Dimensions
- Diameter 62 mm
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 45, lot 760
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 760, The Watch Auction - Pocket Watches, Gardiner Houlgate (25th October 2023)
- Catalogue title (original)
- George III silver and tortoiseshell verge triple cased pocket watch made for the Turkish Market by George Prior, London 1808, the fusee movement signed Geo'e (George) Prior, London, no. 34340, with pi (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 45, lot 760), this is a pocket watch by George Prior, made in England, dated 1808 (hallmarked London). The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver, tortoiseshell. Recorded dimensions: Diameter 62 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
George III silver and tortoiseshell verge triple cased pocket watch made for the Turkish Market by George Prior, London 1808, the fusee movement signed Geo'e (George) Prior, London, no. 34340, with pierced engraved balance cock with urn, flat steel three arm balance, silvered regulating disc and ornate pillars, the enamel dial signed George Prior, London with Turkish numerals, minute track and blued steel beetle and poker hands, within plain matching inner cases and tortoiseshell outer case with pinwork decoration and chased silver mounts, case maker 'I.R' (James Richards), 62mm (the movement requires attention) - ** George Prior was born 1782. He moved to London and built up a considerable business in supplying watches to the Ottoman Empire, at the time one of the wealthiest markets in the Middle East. He died in 1830.
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
Verge and pair-cased watches
After Christiaan Huygens and Robert Hooke applied the balance spring around 1675, the verge watch became a reasonably reliable timekeeper and the minute hand became standard. Through the eighteenth century the typical English watch was a pair-cased verge: a fusee movement with a pierced, engraved balance cock, housed in an inner case and a separate protective outer case, often of repoussé gold, shagreen, tortoiseshell or enamel.
French watches of the same period were thicker 'oignons', later replaced by elegant thinner watches following Jean-Antoine Lépine's bar-bridge calibre of c. 1770. Dutch, Swiss and German makers supplied international markets, and verge watches were made until the mid-nineteenth century as cheaper alternatives to the cylinder and lever.
What to look for
- The pierced balance cock on the backplate: winged (continental) or with a foot (English); its style dates the watch.
- Fusee and chain visible through the movement; key winding through the dial (early) or case back.
- Hallmarks inside English silver or gold cases, which give a date letter.
- Maker's name and serial number engraved on the backplate; watch papers inside outer cases.
- Enamel dials (after c. 1720) versus earlier champlevé metal dials.
Dating clues
- Champlevé dials: c. 1680–1730; white enamel dials thereafter.
- English case hallmarks give the year of assay to within a year.
- Verge watches persisted in cheap production until c. 1850.
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.
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