Pocket Watches · Pair-case watch
Pair-case watch
- Maker / attribution
- Daniel Delander (Maker)
- Date
- c. 1715–19
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- British, London
- Object type
- Pair-case watch
- Materials / technique
- Outer case, inner case, and champlevé dial: silver and blued steel hands; Movement: gilded brass, steel, and diamond endstone
- Dimensions
- Diameter of outer case: 2 in. (5.1 cm); Diameter of inner case: 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm); Diameter of back plate: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm); Depth of whole object: 1 1/16 in. (2.7 cm)
- Holding institution
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Accession / object no.
- 17.190.1503a, b
- Credit line
- Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
- Catalogue title (original)
- Pair-case watch (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (object number 17.190.1503a, b), this is a pair-case watch by Daniel Delander, made in British, London, England, dated c. 1715–19. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Outer case, inner case, and champlevé dial: silver and blued steel hands; Movement: gilded brass, steel, and diamond endstone. Recorded dimensions: Diameter of outer case: 2 in. (5.1 cm); Diameter of inner case: 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm); Diameter of back plate: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm); Depth of whole object: 1 1/16 in. (2.7 cm). The record is illustrated with 4 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
The source record does not include a narrative description. The structured fields above are reproduced from it.
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
The balance spring (c. 1675) improved watches dramatically and introduced the minute hand. English pair-cased verge watches with pierced balance cocks and French oignons were typical; enamel painting at Blois and Geneva, and the repeating watch (1680s), made watches objects of great refinement.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Renaissance 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.
Read next:Verge escapementFuseeBalance spring (hairspring)Verge escapement
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