98th Auction
2018/11/10
Lot 374
Thomas Mudge / William Dutton, London, Movement No. 968, 48 mm, 141 g, circa 1770
An exquisite pair-cased half quarter repeating pocket watch with an early cylinder escapement
Case: outer case - 18k rose gold, case maker's punch mark "IF", London hallmark of 1806. Inner case - 18k rose gold, florally engraved, pierced, signed movement protection cap, rear bell. Dial: enamel. Movm.: full plate movement, 2 hammers, chain/fusee, three-arm steel balance.
Thomas Mudge (1715-1794) appreticed with George Graham in London and was admitted to the Freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in 1738. After Graham's death in 1751 he took over his business in Fleet Street. From 1755 to 1790 Mudge was in partnership with William Dutton, another of Graham's apprentices. After 1771 Mudge almost exclusively concerned himself with the design of marine chronometers; he built a watch for the King of Spain which had hour and minute repetition and displayed the equation of time. Mudge was the first to use an intermediate pinion in pocket watches and developed the detached lever escapement in 1760. The "Queen Charlotte watch" commissioned by King George III was the first pocket watch with this kind of escapement; it remains part of the Royal Collection to this very day.
An exquisite pair-cased half quarter repeating pocket watch with an early cylinder escapement
Case: outer case - 18k rose gold, case maker's punch mark "IF", London hallmark of 1806. Inner case - 18k rose gold, florally engraved, pierced, signed movement protection cap, rear bell. Dial: enamel. Movm.: full plate movement, 2 hammers, chain/fusee, three-arm steel balance.
Thomas Mudge (1715-1794) appreticed with George Graham in London and was admitted to the Freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in 1738. After Graham's death in 1751 he took over his business in Fleet Street. From 1755 to 1790 Mudge was in partnership with William Dutton, another of Graham's apprentices. After 1771 Mudge almost exclusively concerned himself with the design of marine chronometers; he built a watch for the King of Spain which had hour and minute repetition and displayed the equation of time. Mudge was the first to use an intermediate pinion in pocket watches and developed the detached lever escapement in 1760. The "Queen Charlotte watch" commissioned by King George III was the first pocket watch with this kind of escapement; it remains part of the Royal Collection to this very day.
Sold
estimated
8.000—12.000 €
Price realized
14.900 €