Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Irish Gold and Enamel Chatelaine Watch, 1766
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1766 (hallmarked Chester)
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- gold, enamel
- Stock no.
- A10922
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Pieces of Time (A10922)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Irish Gold and Enamel Chatelaine Watch (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Pieces of Time (dealer), London (stock number A10922), this is a pocket watch, made in United Kingdom, dated 1766 (hallmarked Chester). The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: gold, enamel. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
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
Dealer description — Pieces of Time
An 18 th Century Irish verge in a gold and enamel pair case and matching chatelaine. Full plate fire gilt movement with square baluster pillars. Pierced and engraved cock, engraved foot and plate for the silver regulator disc. Fusee and chain with worm and wheel barrel setup between the plates. Plain three arm gilt balance, blue steel spiral hairspring. White enamel dial with Roman and Arabic numerals, decorative pierced gold hands. Plain gold inner case, gold pendant and stirrup bow, maker’s mark “R.H”. Gold and enamel outer case, bezels decorated in a geometric pattern of white and blue champleve enamel. Central enamel oval cartouche of classically dressed woman waking an angel painted “en grisaille”. Border of white enamel dots imitating split pearls. Ed in white champleve enamel. Surrounding the cartouche foliate decoration in translucent dark blue champleve enamel, above a tied ribbon. Fine matching chatelaine, the gilt clip faced with gold decorated with a large oval depicting a classically dressed woman beside a brazier. Hanging from the clip are three matching gold faced cartouches joined by gold rings and small enamelled cartouches. The watch secured to the lowest cartouche by a gold spring clip with threaded safety collar. Four further chains of gold rings and small gold and enamelled cartouches also hang from the clip each terminating in a circular gold hinged clip with threaded safety collar. Recent maroon morocco covered fitted display box. Lined in grey velvet, the chatelaine visible through the glazed lid, easel stand.
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
Pocket watches
The pocket watch was the dominant personal timekeeper from the late seventeenth century until the First World War. Its development tracks the history of the escapement: verge watches with fusees until the late eighteenth century; Thomas Mudge's lever escapement (c. 1755) and the cylinder escapement popularised by George Graham and later by Swiss makers; and the Swiss and English lever watches of the nineteenth century. Lépine's bar-bridge calibre and keyless winding made watches thinner and easier to use.
Industrialisation transformed the trade: American factories such as Waltham (from 1850) and Elgin produced interchangeable parts by machine, and Swiss makers responded with their own mechanisation after the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition. By 1900 a reliable watch was affordable to millions; the finest makers continued to produce complications and precision watches.
What to look for
- The escapement: verge (crown wheel), cylinder, duplex, English or Swiss lever.
- Key winding (a square arbor in dial or back) or keyless crown winding.
- Signatures and serial numbers on the movement, dial and inside case back.
- Hallmarks, case maker's marks and gold or silver standards stamped in the case.
- Dial material: enamel, silver, gold, later printed metal.
Dating clues
- Verge watches dominate before c. 1800; cylinder watches c. 1770–1900; lever watches after c. 1820.
- Keyless winding: increasingly common after c. 1860.
- Manufacturer serial number lists exist for Waltham, Elgin, Longines, Omega, Patek Philippe and others.
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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