207,000 HKD
Privateer Chonometer Thomas Earnshaw, London, No. 3090, hallmarked 1802-03. Very fine and rare 22K gold pair-cased pocket chronometer with “Z” balance. outer: two-body, by “RG”, dated 1804, engine turned, center engraved around a crest with three “fleur-de-lis”: “GULIELMO SUO DE MALO LACU D D MORIENS ZACH: MUDGE AD MDCCCLXVII”. Inner: two-body, by “TH”, “bassine”, polished. off-white, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, subsidiary seconds. Gold “heart and poker” hands. Center signed: “Thomas Barry Esq to his friend Capt.n Mudge”. 47 mm, frosted gilt full-plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee with Harrison’s maintaining power and chain, Earnshaw spring detent escapement, “Z” bimetallic compensation balance with sliding weights and two gold mean time screws, single-footed cock with diamond endstone, escapement jeweled and capped, blued steel free-sprung helical balance-spring.Signed on dial and movement.Diam. 65 mm. Notes A privateer vessel was a privately financed and owned warship which had been granted government license to attack enemy vessels. Privateering was a form of legitimate piracy. During the war of 1812, New York had 26 privateer ships on the seas, Baltimore as many as 18, while Newport, Charleston, Boston, Newburyport, Bristol, New London, Salem, Portsmouth, etc., all had their share. . During the great era of privateering, from approximately 1589 to 1815, privateers were important auxiliaries to the regular Navies. Privateersmen, being authorized
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-06-06
