English silver verge with polychrome enamel dial Circa 1856

Silver verge in pair cases
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An English silver pair-cased verge pocket watch, circa 1856/1889. Gilded full plate movement, verge escapement, decoratively pierced balance cock engraved with flowers, foliage and a basket of flowers, flat three-arm balance, fusee and chain, cylindrical pillars, signed Jno. Roberts Dudley.
White enamel dial with Roman hourls, outer minute track, the centre with a polychrome enamel painted scene of a steam train, two workers resting in the foreground, a figure watching from a bridge in the distance. Plain inner case, the back with a winding aperture, Regency pendant and bow, hallmarked Birmingham 1856 and with maker’s mark RN in an oval cameo for Richard Neale, a later plain outer case, hallmarked London 1889 and with maker’s mark JW incuse for James Widmer.
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Diameter: 57 mm
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Signed: Jno. Roberts Dudley
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The charmingly painted scene of a steam train rushing through the countryside illustrates one of the contrasts of Victorian life, in this instance, the invasion of the industrial era on the traditional country way of life.
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John Roberts of Dudley was active between 1850 and 1860.