clock-watch;
minute-repeating watch;
quarter-striking watch;
coach watch(?);
watch-case(inner and middle);
dust-cap
- Museum number
- 1984,0301.1
- Description
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GOLD AND LEATHER TRIPLE CASED MINUTE REPEATING CYLINDER CLOCK-WATCH.
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MOVEMENT
Gilded-brass movement with duplex escapement replacing an earlier cylinder escapement; separate trains for the quarter-striking and pendant-operated minute repeat mechanisms, both sounding on a bell housed in the back of the inner case; gilded-brass dust-cover.
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DIAL & HANDS
White enamel dial with Roman hour numerals, minutes numbered every fifth division in Arabic.
Blued-steel hands.
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CASES
Triple cases consisting of gold inner case and second case, both pierced and engraved with scrolling foliage and grotesque masks; brass outer case with green leather covering, pierced and engraved gold panels of scrolling foliage and gold pin decoration.
- Production date
- 1750-1760
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 75 millimetres (overall)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Text from 'Watches', by David Thompson, London, 2008, p. 74-75.
Thomas Mudge
MINUTE-REPEATING, QUARTER-STRIKING CLOCK-WATCH
LONDON, 1755
SIGNED: "Thos. Mudge London 407'
As watchmaking technology developed during the eighteenth century, one of the achievements in the field of repeating watches was the minute repeater. This would strike a bell to sound the hour, the quarters past the hour and the minutes past the quarter to tell the time on demand to the nearest minute, simply by pushing in the watch pendant to activate the mechanism. The earliest minute-repeating watch made in England is signed 'Jno Ellicott London 1961'.While the inner case of that watch, now in a private collection, bears no hallmarks, the Ellicott number dates it to c. 1738. Just who made the watch is open to question; it is unlikely to have been Ellicott himself, but probably rather a trade maker working for him. Nothing in the movement of the watch would suggest that it was made by Thomas Mudge, who in any case was at that time working for his former master George Graham.
Thomas Mudge was without doubt one of the most accomplished and ingenious watchmakers working in eighteenth-century London, and it is therefore not surprising that he should make a minute-repeating watch.
In 1752 King Ferdinand VI of Spain's agent clockmaker, Miguel Smith, was in London. He visited Mudge, already knowing that Mudge was making watches for John Ellicott the younger showing the equation of time. On 3 July that year Smith wrote to Mudge and, mentioning a watch with equation of time indication that he had seen in Mudge's workshop, explained that he had recommended Mudge to the king and court:
'Since my return to this Court wch was ye20 of May I have Being Asked By ye King, ye Prime minister and severall of ye Nobility who was the most Capable person now Mr Graham is dead and Believing Mr Mudge worthey of my Recommendation I Gave you the preference.'
The recommendation clearly worked as Mudge went on to make a number of remarkable watches for the Spanish king and court. Smith wrote again to Mudge from Madrid on 26 December 1757:
'Sr. my last to you was ye. 19 current wch time then would not permit me to Give you the orders that his Majesty desired me vizt that you would put in hand Directly a large Gold strikeing quarter minit Repeating watch I mean that it must have all the performances that the crook-head has that you made, that it must strike the Houres quarters and minits single blows as far as 14 minits & the Double Blows at ye quarters; in Regard to the sise of it, Let it be as nigh as you can Ges to the sise of a Large quarter clock watch that you made about 4 years a Gon by my order which ye King wares & allows to be the best watch for performance that he ever had.'
The watch shown here, numbered 407 in Mudge's series, would seem to fit well with a date of 1757, and there is every likelihood that this is the very one that was owned by the King of Spain.
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Whilst initially it was thought the case was made by Thomas Carpenter, it has now been suggested by Philip Priestley that it might well have been made by Thomas Colley. Unfortunately the register for the years 1738-59, which would have contained this mark is now missing. (LCT)
- Location
- On display (G39/dc14/no35)
- Condition
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Latest: 3 (2016) dirty
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3 (2015) Dirty
- Acquisition date
- 1984
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1984,0301.1
