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A silver cased pocket watch,…
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Melbourne
Date:
22-Oct-2024
Lot No.
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Description:
A silver cased pocket watch, maker Thomas Mudge English Circa 1736-37 4.3 cm diameter, 6.1 cm high, 5.4 cm case diameter. A silver cased pocket watch, maker Thomas Mudge. English Circa 1736-37. Silver watch, plain silver inner case, case-maker's mark "IW" with an asterisk above, for John. White; also stamped with the number 5. Outer case is associated. Long pendant, stirrup bow. Silver champleve dial, black enamel Roman hour numerals, black enamel Arabic minute numerals, blued steel beetle and poker hands. Signed on the dial "Mudge" above the centre and "London" below. The movement has a verge escapement with a fusee and chain drive. The table of the. balance cock is finely pierced and engraved with a symmetrical foliage pattern centred by a rosette with a mask near the foot of the cock. The foot is finely pierced, as is the fret which indicates the numbers on the silver regulator dial. Signed on the back plate "Tho. Mudge 5 London". Plain squared pillars, ornate fusee stop. Charles Allix says that the earliest dated Mudge watch is a gold repousse pair cased watch. with a cylinder escapement numbered 22 and hallmarked for 1738 (illustrated and discussed at page 116, plate 56 of Antique Watches). This watch is No 5, and Charles Allix believes Mudge commenced making watches in 1736 and made about nine a year, which would date this watch at 1736 or not later than 1737. Reference: Britten says Mudge was born at Exeter in 1715, "and showed so great a taste for mechanics, with a particular inclination for horology, that his father placed him as an apprentice with (George) Graham". He was admitted to the freedom of the Clockmakers Company in 1738, and called to the livery in 1766". "In 1769 Mudge made for King George Ill what is perhaps the most historically important watch in the world; not only was it the first pocket watch to have an automatic device for compensating changes in temperature, but it contained Mudge's invention of the lever escapement, which was eventually to attain complete supremacy in watches so that it is now the only escapement made. Yet so great were the difficulties of making it at first that Mudge would never make another and believed it could never be made a commercial success. George Ill gave the Mudge lever to his wife, Queen Caroline. and it is still in going order at Windsor Castle". About 1755 Mudge went into partnership with William Dutton, and from about 1765 Mudge. turned his attention to marine timekeepers and in 1771, leaving the conduct of the business to Dutton, moved to Plymouth where he devoted himself to the construction of chronometers. The first one was sent to Greenwich Observatory in 1774, and the Board of Longitude pronounced it satisfactory and sent him 500 pounds and asked him to continue his researches. Mudge's remontoire escapement in his chronometers demanded even greater delicacy in construction than did his lever; even though it proved to have accuracy that was not rivalled for nearly a century, its extreme delicacy and complication meant it could never have been produced commercially. Mudge was appointed clock maker to George Ill in 1776, which duty he fulfilled by proxy, and. he died at his son's house in Walworth on 14th November 1794. Provenance: Purchased by Norman Dean from E. I. Bright of Brisbane in 1971 for $100. Dimensions: 4.3 cm diameter, 6.1 cm high, 5.4 cm case diameter
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified