Lot 435

Fromanteel, 53 mm, 112 g, circa 1690
A rare pair-cased verge pocket watch with so-called "wandering hour"
Case: outer case - silver, coated with leather, stud decoration. Inner case - silver. Dial: silver and gilding, champlevé in the lower half. Movm.: full plate movement, chain/fusee, three-arm brass balance.
The retrograde minute display sits in the top half of the silver dial. Underneath is a semi-circular cutout reveals a revolving gilt disc; a window displays the hours with Roman numerals. Below this semi-circle, a retrograde scale indicates the quarter hours. The lower part of the dial is decorated with chased and engraved eagle decoration surrounded by fine volutes and foliate tendrils.
This watch was most likely made by Abraham Fromanteel, son of the famous maker Ahasuerus Fromanteel (1607-1693); Ahasuerus Fromanteel was the first clockmaker in England to produce pendulum clocks. His son Abraham was born circa 1646 in London. He trained as a watchmaker between 1662 and 1669 and became a free brother of the Clockmakers' Company in 1680. Abraham is known to have worked in London, Amsterdam and Newcastle upon Tyne, where the Fromanteel family business had established branches. He died in 1730 at the age of 84.
Source: Brian Loomes, "Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, London 2006, p. 284.

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