English 18K gold verge watch with bloodstone bowl Circa 1750

Gold consular cased verge by L. Biggs
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An English 18 carat gold consular cased key-wound verge watch, circa 1750. Gilt finished verge movement, pierced and engraved balance cock, square baluster pillars. White enamel dial with Roman numerals for hours, Arabic numerals for the minutes, beetle and poker hands. The case with chased foliate scrollwork containing a bloodstone bowl. Movement signed and numbered.
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Diameter: 43 mm
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Signed: L. Biggs London
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Bloodstone is a beautiful, mostly, dark green stone that features red or brown spots that form as a result of impurities in the iron oxide. These spots look like blood splatters, giving the stone its English name. The stone is also referred to as a heliotrope, and gets this name from the Greek words helio, meaning ‘sun’, and tropos, meaning ‘toward the sun’. It’s said that the colour is also reminiscent of heliotrope plants that face towards the sun. The solid green colour that encompasses the rest of the stone is brought in as a result of the amphibole or Chlorite minerals found in the green Chalcedony. Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica that’s composed of fine intergrowths of moganite and quartz, the minerals that make up most agate stones too. Because of its varied composition, the green in bloodstone is not always evenly distributed and may have blue or yellow streaks in addition to green. It has been a popular gemstone for at least two thousand years.