Exceptional Horological Sale Celebrat...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Apr 24, 2004

LOT 222

Humfrey Downing, London, circa 1650. Very fine and very rare silver, oval, pre?balance spring, single-hand pendant watch with concealed dial in the form of a seashell.

CHF 20,000 - 30,000

EUR 12,600 - 19,000 / USD 15,600 - 23,500

Sold: CHF 20,700

C. Two-body, "fermée type", oval with deep back, chiseled and engraved to resemble a seashell, small pendant, loose ring.D. Silver ring with champlevé radial Roman numerals and inner quarter-ring fixed to silver dial plate very finely engraved with flowers. Blued steel "tulip" hand.M. Oval, 38 x 29 mm, full plate gilt brass, slender Egyptian pillars, fusee and gut, short train, verge escapement, circular steel foliot, irregular pinned cock, worm-gear mainspring set-up with silver calibrated plate.Signed on the back plate.Dim. 48 x 34 mm


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 05

Notes

Humfrey Downing Was apprenticed to Robert Grinkin in 1637. Although Loomes, in his monumental work on early watchmakers, stated that there was no known surviving watch by him, we know of another one in the Ruscitti collection (No. 9 in his cat-alogue published by the Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze, 1998), as well as the present watch.