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Lot Essay
The addition of the balance spring to the balance wheel invented around 1657 by Robert Hooke and Christian Huygens greatly increased the accuracy of portable timepieces, transforming early pocketwatches from expensive novelties to useful timekeepers. Few early watches had a Barrow regulator, which used a worm drive.
The present watch is one of the exceedingly few surviving watches fitted with this so-called endless screw or straight line regulator and the exceptionally early balance spring. The invention of this regulator is attributed to the English watchmaker Nathaniel Barrow, active in the second half of the 17th century. The layout of the system is in fact a combination of old and new: the worm screw occupying the position of the pre-balance spring worm-and-wheel set up brackets but with the addition of the newly invented spring. The worm carries a slide, onto which are mounted the curb pins embracing the outer end of the balance spring. The pointer on the slide moves across the engraved index calibrated 1, 2, 3, 4, indicating the distance the slide has moved when regulated. The square end of the worm allows the adjustment by means of a key. By shortening or increasing the length of the balance spring, the accuracy of the watch was improved.
A watch signed Henricus Jones London featuring an early balance spring and "Barrow" endless screw regulator is in the collections of Geneva's renowned Patek Philippe Museum (Inv. S-474) and described and illustrated in The English Watch - 1585-1970 by Terence Camerer Cuss, pp. 112 & 113, pl. 50.
The enamel scenes on the present watch are painted by Guillaume François Bulet of Geneva, apprenticed to the enamel painter Daniel Paingart from 1664 to 1665. In addition to the signature Bulet pinxit (painted by Bulet), the watch case is also inscribed with the title of the scenes Aurora Cephalum rapiens, Latin for "The rapt of Cephalum by Aurora".
The story of Cephalus and Aurora of Ovid's "Ars Amatoria" and 'Metamorphoses' has inspired artists for centuries because of its colourful portrayal of Greek myths. Cephalus, an Athenian hero, fell in love with and married Procris. Shortly afterwards while hunting deer he caught the attention of the Goddess of Dawn, Aurora. She had a roving eye and was frequently attracted to young mortal men. Descending from her mountain home, Aurora carried Cephalus off with her. However, on finding that he remained faithful to Procris, she allowed him to return home, privately swearing vengeance. She caused a spirit of jealousy to infect their marriage and this eventually resulted in the accidental death of Procris who suffered a wound inflicted by Cephalus with his hunting spear.
The two key episodes of Cephalus's story, his abduction by Aurora and his killing of his beloved Procris, became very popular with artists, writers and composers during the eighteenth century, especially in Europe. It is retold in Cephalus and Procris; Narcissus, the 1595 poem by Thomas Edwards, and echoed in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, where Pyramus and Thisbe refer to "Shafalus" and "Procrus."
The present watch is one of the exceedingly few surviving watches fitted with this so-called endless screw or straight line regulator and the exceptionally early balance spring. The invention of this regulator is attributed to the English watchmaker Nathaniel Barrow, active in the second half of the 17th century. The layout of the system is in fact a combination of old and new: the worm screw occupying the position of the pre-balance spring worm-and-wheel set up brackets but with the addition of the newly invented spring. The worm carries a slide, onto which are mounted the curb pins embracing the outer end of the balance spring. The pointer on the slide moves across the engraved index calibrated 1, 2, 3, 4, indicating the distance the slide has moved when regulated. The square end of the worm allows the adjustment by means of a key. By shortening or increasing the length of the balance spring, the accuracy of the watch was improved.
A watch signed Henricus Jones London featuring an early balance spring and "Barrow" endless screw regulator is in the collections of Geneva's renowned Patek Philippe Museum (Inv. S-474) and described and illustrated in The English Watch - 1585-1970 by Terence Camerer Cuss, pp. 112 & 113, pl. 50.
The enamel scenes on the present watch are painted by Guillaume François Bulet of Geneva, apprenticed to the enamel painter Daniel Paingart from 1664 to 1665. In addition to the signature Bulet pinxit (painted by Bulet), the watch case is also inscribed with the title of the scenes Aurora Cephalum rapiens, Latin for "The rapt of Cephalum by Aurora".
The story of Cephalus and Aurora of Ovid's "Ars Amatoria" and 'Metamorphoses' has inspired artists for centuries because of its colourful portrayal of Greek myths. Cephalus, an Athenian hero, fell in love with and married Procris. Shortly afterwards while hunting deer he caught the attention of the Goddess of Dawn, Aurora. She had a roving eye and was frequently attracted to young mortal men. Descending from her mountain home, Aurora carried Cephalus off with her. However, on finding that he remained faithful to Procris, she allowed him to return home, privately swearing vengeance. She caused a spirit of jealousy to infect their marriage and this eventually resulted in the accidental death of Procris who suffered a wound inflicted by Cephalus with his hunting spear.
The two key episodes of Cephalus's story, his abduction by Aurora and his killing of his beloved Procris, became very popular with artists, writers and composers during the eighteenth century, especially in Europe. It is retold in Cephalus and Procris; Narcissus, the 1595 poem by Thomas Edwards, and echoed in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, where Pyramus and Thisbe refer to "Shafalus" and "Procrus."