Russian pocket watch made of birchwood and bone Circa 1865

Birchwood and bone cylinder watch by Mikhail Semyonovitch Bronnikov
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A fine and very rare Russian pocket watch entirely made of birchwood and bone, circa 1865. Movement wholly made of wood with pinned wooden bridges, excluding the mainspring, balance spring, and pivots, with going barrel, cylinder escapement with bone staff, plain wood three armed balance. Wooden dial with Arabic numerals on bone cartouches and subsidiary seconds, original wooden hands. Hinged case back, polished, bezels with turned ribs at the edges, small circles in the centre. It is signed inside the back cover in Cyrillic.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Signed: Mikhail Semyonovitch Bronnikov
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Bronnikov’s inventive design features a movement that is an integral part of the case. The dial serves as the pillar plate, the bridges and cock supported by brackets milled in the back part of the band. The celebrated Albert Potter later employed the same idea.
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Bronnikov. A family from Vjatka, Russia, specialized in making all-wood and all-ivory watches. The first recorded member of the family was Ivan Bronnikov (circa 1770 – 1860), a joiner and turner. Semyon Ivanovitch (1800 – 1875) made a pocket watch entirely carved out of wood for an 1837 exhibition. The future czar Alexander II is said to have purchased the watch. Two of Semyon’s seven sons, Mikhail Semyonovitch and Nicolai Semyonovitch, continued. Mikhail’s son Nicolai Mikhailovitch was the last watchmaker in the family. Nicolai Mikhailovitch travelled to Moscow in 1909 or 1910 and is said to have worked there for Paul Buhre  The small town of Vjatka (population today is just over 400,000) is situated east of St. Petersburg on the river Vjatka, between the Volga and the Ural Mountains  It is an important metallurgical centre, which suggests that it was not for the lack of metal that the Bronnikovs made wooden watches  Unlike metal, wood is not subject to the thermal variations created by very warm and extremely cold temperatures  All-wood watches were expensive, selling for approximately 120 rubles, whereas a gold watch cost from 90 to 100 rubles  In 1867 the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs ordered two Bronnikov watches  A Prize was won for wood and ivory watches at the St. Petersburg Exhibition in 1870  In 1873, the Bronnikovs took part in the Vienna International Exhibition, and in 1896 Mikhail Semyonovitch won a silver medal for a palm-wood watch with palm-wood chain he showed at the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod  In 1900 Bronnikov watches were sent to the Paris International Exhibition  In 1902 Nicolai Mikhailovitch exhibited a birch wood watch at the All-Russian Exhibition in St. Petersburg  The clockwork parts were made of various woods, including walnut, honeysuckle, boxwood, and hardened bamboo; the cases from birchwood or boxwood, and the dials were often decorated with ivory or mother-of-pearl  Bronnikov watches feature an unusual type of construction: rather than having the wheels installed between two plates as is usually the case, the dial also serves as the pillar plate, as well as being an integral part of the case  These watches were not intended for everyday use but rather as expensive and rare souvenirs. Known signatures include “M.S. Bronnikov in Vjatka”, “The Bronnikov Brothers in Vjatka”, and “N.M. Bronnikov in Vjatka”.