Lot 716

A. Lange, Dresden, Movement No. 5873, Case No. 5873, 52 mm, 107 g, circa 1868
A rare Glashuette hunting case pocket watch with chronograph
Case: 18k pink gold, polished, engraved medallion with rampant lion and inscription "DUCIT AMOR PATRIAE" ("The love of our country is leading us") signed gold dome with presentation engraving "James Shindler 1868" und "Arthur Wellesley Kipling, June 6th 1906", chronograph pusher at "12", case maker's punch mark "SG". Dial: enamel, eccentric hour dial with Roman numerals, central Arabic minutes, auxiliary seconds, blued spade hands. Movm.: 2/3 plate movement, frosted, gilt, signed, screwed gold chatons, gold screw compensation balance, blued balance spring with terminal curve, very finely engraved balance cock, gold lever and escape wheel, chatoned diamond endstone on balance.
A nearly identical watch (no. 5871) is illustrated on page 240f. of Reinhard Meis' "A. Lange und Söhne"; Meis writes: "Around 1867/68 Adolph Lange had already developed pocket watches with additional chronograph function and built them in a small series. The mechanism was set up under the dial. The wheel moving the chronograph hand sat directly on the cannon pinion and was driven by the seconds wheel via a clutch lever. For lack of space the hour hand was moved up and off-centre. A pusher at 12 started and stopped the chronograph hand and reset it to zero."

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