Stock No.

Exhibit No.41

Case

The inner case with plain glazed dial bezel, hinged to the pierced and engraved back with scrolls and a mask below VI, the rear also engraved 696 on the inner wheatear border, below the hour-repeat push bow pendant, the plain centre with winding square and decorative wheel in the middle. The inside punch numbered 696 and hallmarked for 1733, further stamped IW* for the casemaker, John Ward of Boars Head Court, Fleet Street, the bell screw-fixed.
The outer repoussé case signed on the lower back Parbury (the chaser, Ishmael Parbury) with a scene in which a seated figure of Minerva, as Britannia, raises a veil from a globe displaying the Americas. Outside the cartouche are pierced sections, between four panels containing:

Surveying instruments; waywiser and plane table;
Navigational instruments; backstaff, azimuth compass(?), chart, crossstaff,
telescope and dividers.
Astronomical instruments; telescopic quadrant, Gunter quadrant,
square(?), protractor, dividers.
Time instruments; sandglass, watch, clock and sundial.

The bezel, scratch marked 696 inside the back rim, with further pierced sections between panels containing flowers. The inside further stamped IW* for John Ward and London hallmarks for 1733.

Dial

The fine and original enamel dial with Arabic numerals outside the division ring and Roman hours within with original blued steel beetle and poker hands.

Movement

The cylinder movement with gilt-brass plates and five baluster pillars signed George Graham London 696. The gilt balance cock pierced and superbly scroll engraved with a mask below the diamond endstone and also numbered 696 under the cock, the similarly engraved top plate with silvered regulation disc, all held by blued steel screws. The going train with fusee and the quarter repeat mechanism activated by pressing the pendant.

Duration

30 hour

Provenance

Chester Beatty Collection, sold Sotheby’s June 1963, lot 194;
Antiquorum Geneva, October 1995, lot 38;
Bobinet, 13 March 2006, sold for €85,000;
John C Taylor collection, inventory no.173

Comparative Literature

Vertue notebooks Vol III, 1934, Walpole Society;
Snowman, Gold Boxes of Europe, 1990, pl.561;
British Museum Magazine, Winter 1997, p.20

Literature

Cumhaill, Investing in Clocks and Watches, 1967, p.75;
Brusa, L’Arte dell’Orologeria in Europa, 1978, fig. 477 & 478;
Antiquarian Horology, Winter 1993, Philip Whyte advert;
Edgcumbe, The Art of the Gold Chaser, 2000, illus. p.133-134;
Evans, Thomas Tompion at the Dial and Three Crowns, 2006, listed p.105;
Evans, Carter & Wright, Thomas Tompion 300 years, 2013, listed p.631;
Garnier & Carter, The Golden Age of English Horology 2015, listed p.196;
The Luxury of Time, Clocks from 1550-1750, 2019, p.29

Escapement

Cylinder

Dimensions

49mm