| Height | 1⅞ inches (48 mm) |
| Case | The plain silver case with hinged split bezel, fixed pommel and loose ring pendant, the plain bowl back with a single shuttered winding hole, originally with an outer case, now lacking. |
| Dial | The 43 mm complex gilt and silver concentric ring dial with sun-and-moon and night-and-day indication, lunar calendar, date-of-month calendar and dial calibrated with the monthly differences between solar and lunar time, Roman hour chapter ring and single blued steel trefoil hand, and moon phase disc within. |
| Movement | The gilt-brass movement plates are held by inverted tulip pillars, with fusee and gut line, the pierced cock with screwed asymmetric foot and engraved with foliage and flowers, two-arm steel balance, worm and wheel set-up with silver engraved Arabic dial in red wax and shaped blued steel mountings, the backplate signed Joseph Munday, Londini in early cursive script. |
| Duration | 30 hour |
| Provenance | Christie’s, 5th July 2002, lot 6, sold for £20,895; |
| Literature | Financial Times, 17th March 2016, Kate Youde, ‘Collector with a mind for the mechanical’ (illus.); |
| Escapement | Verge and plain steel balance with early screwed cock |
| Exhibited | 2018, London, Innovation & Collaboration, exhibit no.40 |
Exhibit № 7. Joseph Munday, London, Circa 1660
A rare and complex Charles II silver astronomical verge pocket watch
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Joseph Munday or Monday (d.1663) was the son of Richard Munday of Chard in Somerset. The Clockmakers’ Company records show he was initially apprenticed in 1654 to Nicholas Tomlins and then turned over to Richard Morgan, subsequently he was turned over again to finish his apprenticeship with Isaac Pluvier (see exhibit no.10, p.46, inventory no.170). He was made Free of the Clockmakers’ in 1654 and little else is recorded about him, but this extraordinary astronomical verge pocket watch indicates that he was a maker of considerable talent. Joseph Munday’s career was short, and there are few examples of his work, Loomes stating that his will was dated in August 1663, and proved in September of that year. It mentions his wife, Anne, and two young children, and such other child or children as my wife goeth withall. There was property in Chard and his wife was to keep the rings, Jewells, Necklace and watch she useth to weare. Baillie also records him as dying in 1663.
During the 17th century, the vast majority of pocket watches were relatively simple, only showing the hour against a single hand. Astronomical pocket watches with their multiple complications would have been difficult, time-consuming and expensive to make, a wealthy customer would likely have commissioned this example from Munday. The small and highly complex dial is ingenious and made up of a series of silver and gilt, fixed and rotating, concentric bands. The fixed outer engraved gilt band has a squat blued steel pointer central to the hinge; indexing the rotating silver chapter engraved with each month and its number of days; and also indexes the rotating gilt, 1-31, date chapter within it. Inside this, the fixed silver Roman hour chapter is marked I-XII with half-hour marks between and a quarter division ring, indicated by the central blue steel trefoil hour hand. The internal red Arabic lunar calendar is marked 1-29½, outside a rotating gilt day-and-night ring reverse engraved 1-12 for the hours twice, both are indexed by a long blued steel trefoil pointer fixed to a central blued steel star disc that reveals a silver phase-of-the-moon mask underneath, through a circular aperture. The inner gilt day-and-night ring can further be adjusted to give the time of high tide at a chosen port, possibly one of the first on an English clock or watch.
Product Description
Joseph Munday or Monday (d.1663) was the son of Richard Munday of Chard in Somerset. The Clockmakers’ Company records show he was initially apprenticed in 1654 to Nicholas Tomlins and then turned over to Richard Morgan, subsequently he was turned over again to finish his apprenticeship with Isaac Pluvier (see exhibit no.10, p.46, inventory no.170). He was made Free of the Clockmakers’ in 1654 and little else is recorded about him, but this extraordinary astronomical verge pocket watch indicates that he was a maker of considerable talent. Joseph Munday’s career was short, and there are few examples of his work, Loomes stating that his will was dated in August 1663, and proved in September of that year. It mentions his wife, Anne, and two young children, and such other child or children as my wife goeth withall. There was property in Chard and his wife was to keep the rings, Jewells, Necklace and watch she useth to weare. Baillie also records him as dying in 1663.
During the 17th century, the vast majority of pocket watches were relatively simple, only showing the hour against a single hand. Astronomical pocket watches with their multiple complications would have been difficult, time-consuming and expensive to make, a wealthy customer would likely have commissioned this example from Munday. The small and highly complex dial is ingenious and made up of a series of silver and gilt, fixed and rotating, concentric bands. The fixed outer engraved gilt band has a squat blued steel pointer central to the hinge; indexing the rotating silver chapter engraved with each month and its number of days; and also indexes the rotating gilt, 1-31, date chapter within it. Inside this, the fixed silver Roman hour chapter is marked I-XII with half-hour marks between and a quarter division ring, indicated by the central blue steel trefoil hour hand. The internal red Arabic lunar calendar is marked 1-29½, outside a rotating gilt day-and-night ring reverse engraved 1-12 for the hours twice, both are indexed by a long blued steel trefoil pointer fixed to a central blued steel star disc that reveals a silver phase-of-the-moon mask underneath, through a circular aperture. The inner gilt day-and-night ring can further be adjusted to give the time of high tide at a chosen port, possibly one of the first on an English clock or watch.
Additional information
| Dimensions | 5827373 cm |
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