Pocket Watches · Watch; verge movement
Pocket watch by Debaufre, Peter, England, 1700-1815
- Maker / attribution
- Debaufre, Peter (maker); Alexander Cumming (maker)
- Date
- 1700-1815
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, London
- Object type
- Watch; verge movement
- Dimensions
- overall: 57 mm x 48 mm x 36 mm, 45 mm,
- Holding institution
- Science Museum Group, London
- Accession / object no.
- L2015-3145
- Credit line
- Lent by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers
- Catalogue title (original)
- Verge watch by Peter Debaufre with later modification by Alexander Cumming, London
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number L2015-3145), this is a watch; verge movement by Debaufre, Peter, made in London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, London, dated 1700-1815. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Recorded dimensions: overall: 57 mm x 48 mm x 36 mm, 45 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
Science Museum Group description
A 'Pirouette' is a device in which the balance is not on the same axis as the verge, but on a separate arbor and geared to the verge, so that it turns much more rapidly. In this case a wheel of 60 teeth on the verge-staff gears with a pinion of 6 leaves on the balance-staff which thus has an arc of about 2½ turns. Although the watch is signed Debaufre and made around 1700, the beautiful verge escapement with a pirouette was undoubtedly the late 18th century work of the clockmakers Alexander Cumming. In May 1815, the Royal Clockmaker Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy attended the sale of Cumming's estate. He bought three items for the library (later museum) of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers including this which was described as 'an original Leaver Escapement watch with verge – vibrates 1/2 seconds –supposed unique invention £3-0-0'. Clockmakers Museum No. 77
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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