Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Silver and tortoiseshell verge quadruple cased pocket watch made for the Turkish Market by Edward Prior, hallmarked London 1855
- Maker / attribution
- Edward Prior (maker)
- Date
- 1855 (hallmarked London)
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- silver, tortoiseshell
- Dimensions
- Diameter 66 mm
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 7, lot 188
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 188, The Watch Auction, Gardiner Houlgate (24th February 2021)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Edward Prior - Fine silver and tortoiseshell verge quadruple cased pocket watch made for the Turkish Market, London 1855, the fusee movement signed Edw. (Edward) Prior, London, no. 68137, with pierced (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 7, lot 188), this is a pocket watch by Edward Prior, made in England, dated 1855 (hallmarked London). The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver, tortoiseshell. Recorded dimensions: Diameter 66 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
Edward Prior - Fine silver and tortoiseshell verge quadruple cased pocket watch made for the Turkish Market, London 1855, the fusee movement signed Edw. (Edward) Prior, London, no. 68137, with pierced engraved balance cock with urn, flat steel three arm balance, silvered regulating disc and ornate pillars, the enamel dial signed Edward Prior, London, with Turkish numerals and minute track, gilt beetle and poker hands, within a plain inner case, matching engraved case, tortoiseshell case with pinwork decoration and an additional hunter-style silver high dome fronted case engraved with floral basket and a six pointed star, case maker 'TH' (possibly Thomas Holliday), 66mm - ** Edward Prior was a London watchmaker, specialising in watches for Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. He worked between 1800 and 1868
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Machine production with interchangeable parts, pioneered by Waltham (1850s) and adopted by Elgin, Longines, Omega and others, made reliable lever watches widely affordable. Keyless winding became standard, railroad watch standards were introduced (1890s), and Swiss and American industries competed globally.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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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