repeating watch;
watch-case
- Museum number
- 1886,0511.3
- Description
-
GOLD AND CARNELIAN PAIR-CASE
Gold and carnelian outer case with portrait bust in centre of a Roman emperor; one panel of carnelian on bezel missing.Lined with salmon coloured silk.
Formerly with a gold inner case, dial and movement.
Verge escapement.
Enamel dial; gilt centre.
Inner gold case pieced and engraved around the band and back.
A central solid panel at the back engraved with the royal arms and lion and unicorn supporters.
- Production date
- 1700-1710
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 48 millimetres (outer case)
-
Thickness: 27.80 millimetres (outer case)
- $Inscriptions
-
-
- Curator's comments
- Said to have been made for James II and given to his daughter, Catherine, Countess of Anglesey.
The story is unlikely to be true. See Jagger, Royal Clocks fro various arguments against it. The prime reason for doubt is that the arms engraved on the inner case relate more closely to those of Queen Anne than of James II. The watch also appears to date from about 1700 -1710. [DT 1/1993]
Although signed Strigner London there are no references to a maker with that name in London in the 1730-1740 period. However, there was a family of watch makers in Friedberg called Strixner and Jakob Strixner, who lived between 1699 and 1770, is possibly the maker of this watch . A second example of the work of Strigner/Strixner exists in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford - a gold and stone-set mother-of-pearl pair-cased quarter-repeating verge watch with en-suite châtelaine which can be compared closely with a watch signed 'Rempuarg' (Graupner reversed) made in Augsburg. The casemaker's mark AG can also be associated with the maker Antoni Grill of Augsburg. [DT - 9/2009].
Society of Antiquaries of London, PROCEEDINGS, Vol.IX pp.213-
Cedric Jagger, ROYAL CLOCKS, London 1983, pp.261-262
Britten, F.J., OLD CLOCKS AND WATCHES AND THEIR MAKERS, 9th ed. London 1982, p.132.
Ullyet, Kenneth, British Clocks and Clockmakers, 1947, p.41 illus (colour).
NOTE:
The watch, except for the carnelian outer case was stolen in December 1971.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
-
Latest: 3 (2016)
-
3 (1994)
- Acquisition date
- 1886
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1886,0511.3