M.I. Tobias & Co., Liverpool, No. 3707, with Chester hallmarks for 1816. Fine 18 ct. gold hunting cased watch with an early Massey lever escapement. | Important Collectors Wristwatches Pocket Watches & Clocks | Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, 21st October 1995

Important Collectors Wristwatches Po...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 21, 1995

LOT 136

M.I. Tobias & Co., Liverpool, No. 3707, with Chester hallmarks for 1816. Fine 18 ct. gold hunting cased watch with an early Massey lever escapement.

CHF 4,500 - 5,000

C. Four body marked "T.H/J.H" with integral dome engraved with the names of four generations from 1819 to 1917, the band, pendant and bow with cast shell-fish decoration, cover and back engineturned (rubbed). D. Matt gold with raised Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds, the centre with vari-coloured cast gold floral decoration, the border with further decoration. Blued steel " serpent" hands. M. Hinged gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, Liverpool jewelling, fusee with chain and maintaining power, Massey lever escapement, plain steel three-arm balance, flat balance spring with unusual bimetallic compensation curb on the index, gilt brass balance cock with intricately engraved decoration, "Patent" and "Detach'd", diamond endstone. Gilt brass dust-cap. Signed on the back plate. In good condition. Diam. 55 mm.

LOADING IMAGES

Image

Notes

Note: The inscription "Patent" and "Detach'd" on the balance cock, refers to the invention of the detached form of lever escapement patented by Edward Massey in 1815. Good example of a watch fitted with an early form of this escapement which paved the way for the development of the singleroller lever escapement in the early 1820's.