Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 27

"Pre-Balance Spring" Thomas Chamberlaine de Chelmesforde. Made in England, circa 1660. Very fine and rare Charles II silver pre-balance spring, single-hand watch with date indication.

CHF 33,000 - 43,000

EUR 20,000 - 28,000 / USD 27,000 - 35,000

Sold: CHF 39,100

C. Two-body, ?bassine?, with curved band, polished, with a shutter for the winding aperture, split bezel, small swivel pendant, loose ring. D. Silver chapter ring with Roman numerals, half-hour markers and inner quarter-hour track, inner pierced and engraved composition of spring flowers over a black ground, outer 31-day calendar ring with a pointer mounted on a gilded ring between the chapter and the calendar rings. Blued steel single "tulip" hand and pointer. M. 41 mm, hinged, gilded full plate, early-type divided Egyptian pillars, fusee and gut-line, verge escapement, two-arm steel balance without a spring, silver florally pierced and engraved cock secured by a screw, three-wheel train, worm and wheel set-up with pierced blued steel brackets, silver plate and Arabic numerals from 1 to 8. Signed on the back plate. Diam. 50 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-6

Good

Slightly oxidized
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Thomas Chamberlaine He worked in Chelmsford (Essex) and London between 1642 and about 1663. He was not officially a member of the Clockmaker's Company but was known to them and tolerated by them. His work is quite sophisticated and he was working at a time of political turmoil in England. This watch is of exactly mid-17th Century manufacture and is likely to have been made just after the restoration of Charles II rather than late in the reign of Charles I or during the Interregnum. Technically speaking it could fit into either period, but stylistically it is more typical of the early restoration. Literature:: Brian Loomes, The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, NAG Press Ltd, 1981, p. 140. This watch was sold by Antiquorum, Geneva, 24 & 25, April, 1999, Lot 369. Another watch by this maker was sold by Antiquorum, The Sandberg Watch Collection, March 31, 2001, Lot 137 and is published in the Sandberg book, page 90-91. The present lot was previously sold by Antiquorum Geneva, on April 25, 1999, lot 369.