Painted Enamel and Rock-Crystal Cased Verge Watch

Description — British Museum

Painted Enamel and Rock-Crystal Cased Verge Watch. Case: Painted enamel and rock-crystal case, with hinged glazed lid. The gold rims to the body and bezel are decorated with flowers in polychrome painted enamels. The lid is glazed with a single piece of rock-crystal cut with 12 lobed facets around a small concave circular centre. The body of the case is similar in design to the bezel but where the bezel has been ground flat over the area within the chapter-ring, the back retains its domed shape. There are four lugs in the edge of the pillar-plate to engage in recesses in the case-band. The case body is cut from a single piece of crystal and shaped in a similar manner to the lid to follow the shape of the case and bezel rims. There is no case catch. The pillar-plate is hinged to the case at XII. Gold pendant and finial decorated with polychrome enamels similar to the rims. Dial & Hand: Gold dial, pinned directly to the pillar-plate. the dial enamelled all over with an outer white enamel chapter-ring with Roman hours I-XII and foliate half-hour marks within two exposed gold circles. In the centre a painted enamel landscape showing a castle gatehouse over a moat. Blued-steel hand. : Movement Frame: Circular gilt-brass plates with four baluster pillars. Riveted potence pierced and shaped as a foliate scroll. Riveted counter-potence, replaced. Engraved decoration around the verge aperture. : Mainspring & Set-Up: Gilt-brass barrel with dovetailed cap and riveted steel hook. Tangent screw set-up on the potence-plate with two pierced steel brackets for the worm gear. : Fusee & Stop-Work: Gilt-brass fusee, with gut-line and English stop-work. The profile of the fusee has been changed to make it suitable for a later chain which has since been replaced with gut-line. Very elaborate foliate stop-work spring and stop-iron. : Train: Three wheel train, the second wheel replaced. : Escapement & Balance: Verge escapement, the verge and balance not original. The crown wheel arbor shortened and the counter-potence replaced. Screwed-on balance cock, pierced and engraved with foliate scrolls. : Duration: 28 Hours.

Curator's comments — British Museum

The main body of the case is possibly a replacement. There is damage to the rims at III-IIII where the watch may have received a hard knock which removed most of the enamel and even some of the gold. This may also have broken the case-back. In comparison with the lid, the finish of the back is soft. The lid is ground off flat but the back has no clearly defined edge to its flat area, the change in direction being much more gradual. The inside has been cut out using one large diameter grinding wheel. On the other hand the back may be original and the lid may have been ground off flat at a later date[DRT.2/92] See Huygens Ouevre Vol.II Appendix. letter no.69 Constantine to Christian January 5th 1650. He had just bought a watch 'a la mode' with a case made from rock crystal that permitted a view of the movement such as one would see if the case was made of ice'. Such watches were exported both as complete pieces with movements signed by Genevan watchmakers and as empty cases for use by foreign watchmakers. Three crystal cases for clock watches were ordered in 1623 by Pierre Lourteau(active 1603-1628) a watchmaker in Lyon, France from the Genevan lapidary Paul Tillier. Clare Vincent and J.H.Leopold, European Clocks and Watches in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, p.72 Also Constantine Huygens' Diary 4th Dec. 1649. [JHL 2/92] Bibliography: Good, Richard, WATCHES IN COLOUR, Poole, 1978, plate 6.