Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Mid-18th century silver pair cased verge pocket watch made for the Turkish Market by George Clarke, London, hallmarked London 1766
- Maker / attribution
- George Clarke (maker)
- Date
- 1766 (hallmarked London)
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Dimensions
- Diameter 55 mm
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 50, lot 20
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 20, The Collection of the Late Fred Crampton - PART I, Gardiner Houlgate (20th May 2024)
- Catalogue title (original)
- George Clarke, London - mid-18th century silver pair cased verge pocket watch made for the Turkish Market, London 1766, signed fusee movement, no. 7069, with sprung three-arm flat steel balance, pierc (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 50, lot 20), this is a pocket watch by George Clarke, made in London, England, dated 1766 (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. Recorded dimensions: Diameter 55 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 Clarke, London - mid-18th century silver pair cased verge pocket watch made for the Turkish Market, London 1766, signed fusee movement, no. 7069, with sprung three-arm flat steel balance, pierced and engraved balance cock, silvered regulating dial and fancy pillars, signed silver champlevé dial with Turkish numerals, outer minute chapter, fancy gilt hands, bullseye glass, the inner case with maker's 'IW' stamp, with an associated shagreen bound gilt metal outer case with a bullseye glazed back, 55mm
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.
Related records
Clocks · c.1750
Clock by George Clarke, England, c.1750
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · mid 18th century
Clock by George Clarke, England, mid 18th century
Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
Clocks · 1760–1770
Bracket clock by George Clarke
British Museum
Clocks · c. 1760
Lantern clock by George Clarke, Whitechappel Fecit London, c. 1760
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