Rare English coach watch for the Chinese market Circa 1790

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Kenmerk
BA1046
Diameter
70 mm
Estimate
€ 12.500 - 25.000
Price sold
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Decorated gilt metal verge with visible balance and diablotine 
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A very fine and rare English gilt metal, enamel and paste-set pair-cased coach watch with visible paste-set balance and 1/4th second diablotine made for the Chinese market, circa 1790. Hinged dial plate, gilt-brass full plate movement engraved with stylized foliage, tapered cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, five-armed gilt balance set with alternating red and blue pastes, blued steel bridge. The bezel of the outer case engraved with foliate decoration, the back set with a Limoges style painted on enamel panel decorated with a portrait of Marie Antoinette, the border decorated to match the bezel, gilt dust ring. White enamel dial, small hour dial at 12 with Roman numerals, subsidiary dials for the minutes, seconds, lunar calendar, quarter-second diablotine and regulation, aperture for the balance wheel decorated with alternating blue and red pastes and original gold hands. Movement signed.
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Diameter: 70 mm
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Signed: William Carpenter London
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William Carpenter, 1770-1805, is best known for his elaborate musical automata, several examples of which are preserved in the Peiping Museum. He made watches and automata for the Oriental market.
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The feature known as a diablotine is a small subsidiary dial on a chronograph or independent centre seconds pocket watch, the hand of which moves in a jumping manner at intervals of 1/4 or 1/5th of a second. The term literally means ‘little devil’. The diablotine is halted when the chronograph or centre seconds is stopped and the fractions of a second can be read.

Signed: William Carpenter London

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