241,500 HKD
George Graham, London, No. 5980, with London hallmarks for 1740.Very fine and rare silver gilt pair-cased centre-seconds stop-watch. Double-body, outer and inner, both polished by John Ward (Master mark) the inner one with winding hole shutter. Champlevé silver with Roman numerals and outer Arabic minutes and seconds ring. Blued steel “poker and beetle” hands, counterpoised polished steel seconds hand. Hinged gilt brass full plate with Egyptian pillars, fusee with chain, cylinder escapement with large brass escape wheel, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring. Gilt brass English cock pierced and engravedith foliage, diamond end-stone. Gilt brass dust cap. Stop-watch bolt in the dial plateSigned on back plate and dust cap.Diam. 56 mm. Notes Very fine example of an early stop-watch with cylinder escapement, produced by the celebrated George Graham. According to Charles Allix (Antiquarian Horology, September 1976, pp. 852 to 860), very few cylinder watches by Graham with stop-work are known to exist, most of them were fitted with an enamel dial, blued steel poker and beetle hands and polished steel centre-seconds. This watch is fitted with a silver champlevé dial of outstanding quality. The case carries the London hallmarks for 1740nd the case maker mark “JW” which is to be found on almost all Graham watches of the period. The gold cases cylinder watches No. 5438, from 1732, and 6301, from 1747, were both fitted with an enamel dial.Most of the watch cases made
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2000-06-05
