PROPERTY FROM THE ABBOTT-GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION (LOTS 225-277)

AN ENGLISH MINIATURE EBONIZED AND BRASS-MOUNTED TIMEPIECE WITH PULL QUARTER REPEAT AND ALARM

SAMUEL WATSON, LONDON, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

AN ENGLISH MINIATURE EBONIZED AND BRASS-MOUNTED TIMEPIECE WITH PULL QUARTER REPEAT AND ALARM
SAMUEL WATSON, LONDON, EARLY 18TH CENTURY
The arched dial with silvered chapter ring signed 'WATSON LONDON', blued steel hands, matted center, alarm dial to arch and subsidiary dial for regulation to side, foliate engraving and mask head spandrels; the movement with single chain fusee and verge escapement with balance wheel, pull quarter repeat on two bells, pull wind alarm, the foliate engraved backplate with oval reserve signed 'S.Watson / LONDON'
7 ½ in. (19 cm.) high (handle down), 5 ¼ in. (13.5 cm.) wide, 3 ½ in. (9 cm.) deep

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, 15 November 1971.
Masterpieces from The Time Museum, Part II; Sotheby's, New York, 19 June 2002, lot 166.

Literature

C. Allix, P. Bonnert, Carriage Clocks: Their History and Development, Woodbridge, 1974, p. 15, pl. 1/18.
G. Brusa, L'Arte dell' Orologeria in Europa, Bramante 1978, pls. 437-438.
C. Jagger, Royal Clocks, London, 1983, p. 47, fig. 59.

Exhibited

The Time Museum, Rockford, Illinois, Inventory No. 566.

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Lot Essay

A scientist and clockmaker Samuel Watson (b. circa 1650 - d. 1740.) worked initially in Coventry then moved to London circa 1691 and became brother of the Clockmakers Company in 1692. In 1712 he offered to sell to the Clockmakers Company an instrument 'to discover the hour of the day at sea and several other useful mathematical matters' but the Company was not interested. (B. Loomes, The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, Tiptree, 1981, p. 563.). Later he was 'Mathematician in Ordinary' to Charles II.

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