- Museum number
- 1963,0501.1
- Description
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GOLD AND ENAMEL CASED CYLINDER STOP-WATCH WITH CENTRE-SECONDS AND QUARTER-SECONDS INDICATION.
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Ruby cylinder escapement.
Stop lever acts on escape wheel.
White enamel dial with centre-seconds and four subsidiary dials for hours and minutes, seconds, quarter-seconds and a combination lock to release the movement.
Gold hands.
Gilt-brass dust-cap retained by a screw.
Gold and enamel case; back with red guilloché enamel band around a central oval medallion enamelled with a lion supporting a shield of arms, motto and crest.
- Production date
- 1778 (case)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 48 millimetres (case)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from 'Watches', by David Thompson, London, 2008, p. 94-95.
Thomas Martin
GOLD AND ENAMEL CASED CYLINDER STOP-WATCH WITH JUMP QUARTER-SECONDS
ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON, 1778
SIGNED: 'MARTIN, ROYAL EXCHANGE LONDON N°. 795'
Thousands of ordinary verge and cylinder watches survive today in both private and public collections, and they abound on the open market. However, in contrast to these everyday watches, there were some that were made as very special pieces to astound and impress. In the seventeenth century they might well have been lavishly bejewelled, but in the eighteenth century it is likely that technical achievement would have been considered more important in marking out a watch as something out of the ordinary.
The special aspect of this watch is that it indicates jump quarter-seconds. In addition it has a jewelled cylinder escapement, in which the steel cylinder has an inset sapphire shell. The movement has jewelled bearings for the going train, for which there is a separate subsidiary plate at the front. Unusual for an English watch of this era is the lack of fusee. Instead there is a going barrel with the great wheel teeth cut halfway up the barrel wall. The quarter-seconds indication is achieved by a secondary wheel mounted on the escape wheel arbor. This drives a small steel pinion on which is mounted the quarter-seconds hand. In this way the hand moves round the dial in steps as the escape wheel advances.
The dial has an outer circle divided into quarter-seconds and numbered every five seconds 5-60 for the centre-seconds hand. Within this seconds circle are four subsidiaries, beginning at the top with a dial for hours and minutes and at the bottom, above VI, the quarter-seconds dial. To the right is a dial numbered 5-60 for regulation, the hand turned by applying a key to the square. To the left is a more intriguing dial for which initially there might seem to be no purpose. However, anyone trying to open this watch without prior instruction would come up against difficulty, for this is a combination lock. The view of the under-dial work shows a pinion, which turns a sector. In the outer edge of this geared sector there is a slot for the case catch. When the hand is set to the correct number it aligns the slot in the sector with the lug on the case catch to allow the movement to be swung out from the case, revealing the secrets of the mechanism. The watch is also furnished with a stop mechanism, activated by moving a slide in the case band, which causes a long wire detent to touch the cylinder wall and stop the watch.
The maker of the watch, Thomas Martin, became a Freeman in the Pewterers' Company in 1771 and established a business at 7 Royal Exchange, London. He moved to 27 Cornhill, where he remained until 1784; he later moved again and is recorded at St Michael's Alley until 1794. The fine gold and enamel case is punched with the maker's mark 'L.A', registered at Goldsmiths' Hall on 12 October 1772 by Laura Aveline of Denmark Street, St Giles. The case is of the highest quality with very fine and delicate bands of green guilloché enamel and circles of small white enamel dots. The hinge on the left is completely hidden and the bezel release catch has only the tiniest push-piece hidden in the engine-turned rim. The case back has a border of red guilloché enamel and in a cartouche of green and white, decorated en suite with the bezel and band, is a polychrome enamel depiction of a shield of arms resting on a reclining lion. Above the lion is a crest and, in the lower part, the motto 'TUTUM TE ROBORE REDDAM' (I will give you safety by strength). The crest is 'a stag's head, erased, gules, between attires a cross crosslet fitched' and the shield of arms is emblazoned, 'quarterly, 1st and 4th argent, a stag's head erased gules, 2nd and 3rd, gules, a fess ermine surmounted by two lances in saltire argent'.
The armorial bearings are those of the Crawfurd family of Auchinames in Ayrshire. In the context of this watch they indicate a commission from the first owner or from someone wishing to give an extremely lavish present.
Patrick Crawfurd - appointed Conservator of Scots Privileges in Holland in 1769 - was the son of James Crawfurd of Auchinames, a merchant with a business in The Hague, and Elizabeth Andrews, a Scottish woman living in Rotterdam. The gold case of this watch is hallmarked 'London 1778', but also bears a later mark on the pendant, a florid letter 'V'. The existence of this Dutch hallmark, used to guarantee foreign items between 1814 and 1831, provides evidence that the watch was in the Netherlands during that period and suggests that it possibly belonged to a member of the Crawfurd family resident in Rotterdam: the most likely candidate would be Patrick.
- Location
- On display (G39/dc14/no47)
- Condition
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Latest: 2 (20 March 2024)
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3 (2016)
- Acquisition date
- 1963
- Acquisition notes
- Formerly in the Herbert Elkington Collection, purchased by Ilbert in 1933.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1963,0501.1
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: N167 (Ilbert Ledger)