Silver cased verge watch in the form of a shell, with chain and two fob seals

Description — British Museum

Movement frame: Oval gilt-brass plates with four baluster pillars. Engraved decoration around the verge aperture. Mainspring and set-up: Gilt-brass barrel with dovetailed cap and riveted steel hook. Ratchet and click set-up mounted on the potence-plate. The spring and ratchet wheel are replacements and the elaborately pierced and engraved click broken and poorly repaired. Fusee & stop-work: Gilt-brass fusee for gut line with standard stop-work. Train: Three wheel going train of gilt brass wheels the second wheel not original but made from an early wheel, the front face of each tooth filed away to facilitate engagement with the contrate pinion. The contrate wheel has three crossings. Train-count: Gt wheel 56 2nd wheel 45/5 Contrate wheel 40/5 Escape wheel 15/5 Pinion of 3 on extended gt-wheel arbor drives hour wheel of 30. Fusee with 12 turns. Escapement and balance: Verge escapement, the crown wheel runs between a riveted potence with engraved decoration on the visible side, and a replacement screwed on counter potence, the original was probably riveted. The verge and balance are possibly replacements. Pierced and engraved foliate balance cock, pinned to a stud on the potence-plate. Dial & hand: Gilt-brass dial engraved around the outside with scrolling foliage. At the bottom a grotesque mask and at the top, a crown surmounted by a winged heart flanked by two angels. Applied silver chapter-ring with Roman hour numerals I-XII and heart-shaped half-hour marks between two circles, the inner with dots at the hours. Within the chapter-ring the dial is engraved with a landscape with buildings in the background and two ducks on a lake in the foreground. Single blued steel hand. Dial hinged to case at XII. Case-catch not original. Four lugs in the dial edge engage in recesses in the case band. CASE: Silver case in the form of a scallop-shell with hinged lid and back. The fluted case is engraved all over with scrolling foliate designs. The hinge blocks for the lid and back are engraved with a winged cherub's head. Cast silver foliate pendant with loose ring; turned silver finial. Attached to the pendant ring is a silver chain with two silver fob-seals, both with engraved arms. : CASE CATCH An all in one case catch and spring riveted to the underside of the dial not original. MOTION WORK A pinion of report of three pins cut into the end of the great wheel arbor drives a brass dial wheel which is not original. TRAIN COUNT Great Wheel:55 Second Wheel:45 Pinion:5 [wheel not original] Contrate Wheel:40 Pinion:5 Crown Wheel:15 Pinion:5 : Beats per hour:19,800 : MOTION WORK/DURATION Pinion of report:3 Dial Wheel:30 [replacement] Fusee:12 turns Duration:14.4 hours.

Curator's comments — British Museum

The two seals have the following arms: 1. Ermine, three annulets two and one. Crest: a demi-lion rampant, in its dexter paw a sword. 2. On a shield, a sword with the point upwards in bend and in chief a martlet?.