John Barton, London, No. 1420, with London hallmarks for 1771. Fine and important 18 ct. gold and enamel paircased watch with the portrait of the celebrated John Harrison and with a shagreen covered protecting case. | 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 69

John Barton, London, No. 1420, with London hallmarks for 1771. Fine and important 18 ct. gold and enamel paircased watch with the portrait of the celebrated John Harrison and with a shagreen covered protecting case.

CHF 90,000 - 110,000

C. Outer, double body, fully chased with astronomical trophies including the grid-iron pendulum, other instrument made by John Harrison, further floral decoration and centred with a bust portrait of the celebrated John Harrison, attributed to George Michael Moser, painted en grisaille, on an oval enamel panel. h -ler, double body bassine, polished. D. White enamel with 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, cylinder escapement with brass escape wheel, plane polished steel three-arm balance, flat balance spring, Gilt brass cock with diamond endstone. Gilt brass dust cap. Signed on the dust cap and }Jack plate. In very good condition. Diam. 57 mm.

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Notes

Provenance: Percy Webster Collection, sold in the Webster sale by Sotheby's, 27 May 1954, lot 64. Note: This watch was made in 1771, the year after Harrison received the award for "finding the Longitude". The portrait of John Harrison was probably taken from the engraving by Reading in the European Magazine. G.M. Moser was born at Selberting in September 1698, but trained in Geneva before settling in London where he married towards the end of 1729. Probably the most accomplished enameller and chaser of his age, working with equal dexterity in gold and enamel he often signed watch cases and polychrome enamels, but very seldom signed his grisaille work. It has been suggested that this unique watch was intended as a presentation piece to Harrison himself, or was a commission from a notable admirer. The former hypothesis is supported by the fact that John Barton was Harrison's son-in-law and, for the latter, it should be noted that George III himself took a personal interest in horology and had tests of H5 carried out in his private observatory at Kew, early in 1772. It is certainly the case that that the watch was specifically made to honour the 'man who found longitude', as every detail of the outer case refers to his work. Portrait watches are in themselves particularly rare, but Moser decorated at least one other - a chatelaine and watch depicting George III and Queen Charlotte - also in grisaille work. The likeness of Harrison is almost certainly based on the profile of him included by James Tassie in his series of portaits of notable contempotraries which was reproduced, though reversed, in contemporary engravings such as that (shown) which appeared in The European Magazine and London Review, October 1789. The instruments depicted in the chased border of the case are those associated with navigation and horology, and it is interesting to note the presence of the grid-iron pendulum invented by Harrison in the 1720's. Literature: G.H. Baillie, Watches, London, 1921, pl xxxix. H. Quill, John Harrison, The Man zoho found Longitude, London, 1966, fig 33.