Important Collectors’ Wristwatches Po...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 21, 1995

LOT 38

George Graham No. 696, with London hallmarks for 1733. Very fine and important 22 ct. gold pair cased, quarter repeating early cylinder watch. The case by Ishmael Parbury.

CHF 55,000 - 60,000

C. Outer, double body of unique beauty and interest, signed Parbury. The bezel pierced and chased with flowers, scrolling foliage and scallops. The back repoussé with an allegorical scene with the emblematic figure of Britannia reigning over the terrestrial globe and raising Father Time from the Atlantic Ocean. The contours of the Americas appear engraved as well as a sailing ship in the background. Four cartouches surround the scene: in three of them appear the instruments of surveying, navigation and astronomy, in the fourth, a dock, a watch, a sand-glass and a sundial. Inner bassine marked "I.W." (John Ward) under a star, finely pierced and engraved with a mask and foliage. A small security chain is attached to the case to prevent loss and accidents. D. White enamel of the type probably introduced by Graham with black Roman numerals and outer Arabic minute ring. Blued steel "poker and beetle" hands. M. Hinged gilt brass full plate with turned pillars, fusee with chain, early cylinder escapement with brass escape wheel and steel cylinder, plain steel threearm balance, blued steel flat balance spring, gilt brass pierced and engraved cock with diamond endstone. Repeating on a bell by depressing the pendant; the pulse-piece passing through both inner and outer cases. Gilt brass dust cap. Signed on the dust cap, signed and numbered on the back plate, number repeated under the cock. In very good condition. Diam. 44 mm.


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Notes

Note: The problem of finding the Longitude at Sea is manifestly the subject of the detailed allegory which covers the back of the case. The possibility that this was either a commemorative watch or one intended for an eminent person associated with navigation is supported by the high standing of Graham in the scientific world and the fact that he was responsible for encouraging John Harrison in his early days and may thus, by his assistance, be entitled to some of the credit which is usually allocated solely to Harrison. According to the hallmarks, this watch was made at the time of the first of Harrison's successes. Provenance: Chester Beatty collection sold at Sotheby's in London on 17 june 1963, lot 194. Literature: Prominently illustrated in The Ivory Hammer, The Year at Sotheby's, 1962-1963, p. 215. Recorded by Charles Allix in Antiquarian Horology, September 1976, page 857. Described and illustrated by G. Brusa in L'Arte dell' Orologeria in Europa, 1978 and 1982, p. 427, Fig. 477-478. Ishmael Parbury was apprentice in 1713 and became a Freeman of the Society of Apothecaries in 1723. He described himself as an embosser and made at least six cases for George Graham, but only the present one with the allegory of Britannia and the Longitude. Watch cases by him are in the British Museum and in the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. He died in 1746 and in the obituary he is described as a man "of great excellency in his art" while "....his works, which gained him great esteem, above any other Englishman.... obtained the highest prizes....". According to Mr. Richard Edgcumbe, of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the foremost English authority on embossing, Parbury had a notable influence on another celebrated artist, George Michael Moser.