Important Collectors’ Wristwatches Po...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 21, 1995

LOT 198

Charles Cummins London, No. 1275, with London hallmarks for 1843. Very rare 18 ct. gold watch with precision lever escapement of the second generation.

CHF 6,500 - 7,500

C. Four body, "forme quatre baguettes" with reeded band, marked "G.H." (Gustavus Huguenin), the back engraved with scrolling foliage and centred with a crest above a family emblem. Hinged gold cuvette. D. Gold satiné with Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds, engine decorated border. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. Gilt brass full plate with turned pillars, fusee with chain and maintaining power, 19 jewels partly in screwed settings, lateral lever escapement in the idiom of Massey's, but with large roller, jewelled impulse pin, gold lever body, jewelled pallets, draw, eut bimetallic balance, free sprung balance spring with very long outer terminal curve. Signed on the dial and back plate. In very good condition. Diam. 48 mm.


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Notes

Note: According to Cecil Clutton in his book Collector's Collection, 1974, it is difficult to assess what influence the Cummins had, considering the small number of surviving watches by them, but they may safely be credited with having pared the way for the high quality English lever which did not become widely constructed until about 1850. Therefore, Cummins' watches must be regarded as an important feature in any collection setting out to exemplify the development of the English lever. CHARLES CUMMINS was almost certainly, after his father Thomas, the first English maker to use the lever escapement in watches of the highest quality, when this escapement was revived after its almost complete neglect in England during 1800-1820. They appear to have started using the lever escapement soon after 1820.