Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces
Hong Kong, Jul 23, 2020
LOT 25
Tobias
Pair-case pocket watch, patented Massey lever escapement; 18K yellow gold
HKD 32,000 - 40,000
CHF 4,000 - 5,000 / USD 4,200 - 5,300
18K yellow gold, pair-cased open-face, key-winding, round-shaped, pocket watch, with subsidiary seconds at 6 and patented escapement.
Outer case with cast, chased and engraved, bezel and border. Inner case polished.
Gold amati dial with applied pink gold polished radial Roman numerals, with, in the centre, applied varicoloured flowers and foliate decoration; pink gold “Spade” hands.
Movement 19’’’, full plate, fire gilded brass, turned baluster pillars, Liverpool ‘windows’ jewelling with screwed chatons, fusee and chain, maintaining power, patented detached Massey lateral lever escapement (type II), monometallic three-arm balance (probably gold) with peripheral adjustment screws and blued steel flat hairspring, engraved gilded English cock inscribed “Patent”, large diamond end- stone in a blued steel setting, blued steel index regulator; gilded brass sprung dust ring.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: AAA |
Excellent |
Case: 3-8 |
Good Slightly scratched |
Movement: 3* |
Good Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense |
Dial: 3-01 |
Good HANDS Original |
Brand Tobias, Liverpool
Year circa 1825
Movement No. 4 281
Case No. 4 281 (by “T H & C”; with Chester letter-date for 1825)
Caliber 19’’’, patented detached Massey lateral lever escapement (type II)
Dimensions Ø 49 mm. / Ø 55.4 mm. (pair-case)
Signature movement
Notes
Patented detached Massey lateral lever escapement
The inscription “Patent” on the balance cock refers to the invention of the detached form of lever escapement patented in 1815 by Edward Massey (1772-1852). Sometimes, examples of these watches are also inscribed with the word “Detached”. This escapement paved the way for the development of the single-roller lever escapement in the early 1820’s.
Massey, Edward
Son of Edward Massey, he was a Coventry maker. He invented, patented and manufactured various mechanical logs and sounding machines, which were used by mariners throughout the world during most of the 19th century. A comparable achievement was his invention and production of a series of detached lever escapements for watches and a means of winding a watch by depressing the pendant.
His detached lever, patented in 1815, was the first, simple detached lever since the more complicated work of Mudge, Emery, Leroux and Grant. Its simplicity and good rate encouraged other English makers to take an interest in the lever escapement.
Bibliography
• Treherne, Alan, The Massey Family, Clock, Watch, Chronometer and Nautical Instrument Makers, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 1977 (37 pp., 158 ill.).
Tobias, Samuel Isaac
Watchmaker recorded as working between 1811 and 1813 in Liverpool and continued by S. I. Tobias & Co.