English enamel half quarter repeating watch Circa 1770

Gold half quarter repeating watch with
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An extremely gold and enamel pair cased half quarter repeating watch with scene The Borghese Dancers by George Michael Moser, circa 1770, fire gilt full plate movement, pierced and engraved balance cock, diamond end stone, striking on a bell, signed and numbered dust cap, white enamel dial, Roman numerals, outer Arabic minute track, blued steel beetle and poker hands gold inner case pierced and engraved with scroll decoration and a bird by the winding hole, pulse piece to the band between V and VI, outer case centred by enamel plaque painted en grisaille depicting Nuptiales choreae and signed Moser, the scene surrounded by diamonds, translucent blue enamel over an engine turned ground to the band and bezel with scroll decoration and white champlevé enamel band, diamond set push piece, inner case with maker’s mark PG with fish above incuse for Peter Goujon, movement and dust cap signed Ellicott, London.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Signed: Ellicott London
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Using the known hallmarked watches by Ellicott as a guide, see, David Thompson, Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1997, this watch can be dated to circa 1770. The scene to the outer case relates to a 1693 engraving entitled ‘Nuptiales choreae’ (Borghese Dancers) by P.S. Bartoli, adapted by Moser into a delightful scene of maidens celebrating a wedding. It is possible that the watch was originally intended as a wedding gift.

The vigour with which the figures move in Moser’s composition results from his having spent the previous forty years chasing and painting in a baroque and rococo style, rather than following the more restrained rules of neo classicism. The double signature, one in the normal place at the base below the ‘step’, the other just to the left on the edge of it, suggests the supposition that Moser was using his own (maybe signed) drawing as an origin for his own enamel – a little affectation but quite understandable.