English extraordinarily repeating cylinder watch Circa 1775

Repeating cylinder watch with chatelaine
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An English extraordinarily rare and very fine gold enamelled and diamond set quarter repeating cylinder pocket watch with a corresponding chatelaine, circa 1775. Gilt full plate movement, cylinder escapement, decoratively pierced and engraved masked balance cock, diamond end stone, fusee and chain, round baluster pillars, repeating on a bell. White enamel dial with Roman numerals, outer Arabic minute track, winding square at 6 o’clock and gilt metal diamond set floriated hands. Gilt metal dust cover, the front bezel with translucent dark blue enamel over an engine turned ground surrounded by diamonds, a diamond push piece, the rear also covered with translucent dark blue enamel over engine turned ground, a central enamel scene depicting Cupid taming a lion suggesting the strength of love after an engraving by Bernard Picart, diamond surround, maker’s mark I.R. for James Richards, the enamel scene signed Moser (George Michael Moser). Comes with a gilt metal matching chatelaine similarly decorated with enamel panels by Moser, the panels surrounded by diamonds, a chatelaine clip depicting Medusa, diamond set bows and rosettes joining the panels.
Dust cap and movement signed.
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Signed: Geo. Phi. Strigel London BBLD
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The superb enamel scenes to the case back and chatelaine are by George Michael Moser and were inspired by a Bernard Picart engraving, after a cameo by Alessandro Cessati, see Richard Edgcumbe. This piece differs from several other enamel scenes by Moser as the background is a rich blue, rather than his typical chocolate coloured background. Moser also used this scene for a gold box in the Arthur Gilbert Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
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George Philip Strigel, London, is recorded as a freeman of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1781. He was also recorded as Watchmaker to the Queen. Strigel was well connected and was known to have supplied a pair of Chelsea Porcelain clocks to Queen Charlotte.
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George Michael Moser was born on 17 January 1706 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and died on 24 January 1783 at Somerset House, London. He was a renowned artist and enameller of the 18th century, father of celebrated floral painter Mary Moser and, with his daughter, among the founder members of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. He was the son of Michael Moser, an eminent Swiss engineer and metalworker. Moser trained initially as a coppersmith in Geneva and later learnt additional skills as a chaser, goldsmith and engraver. He moved to London during the 1720s and married Mary Guynier. Surviving metal works by him include elaborate gold snuffboxes and watch cases (including movements by noted watchmakers George Philip Strigel and John Ellicott, among others), and silver candlesticks in the rococo style. He subsequently rose to be head of his profession as a gold chaser, medallist, and enameller and was particularly distinguished for the compositions in enamel with which he ornamented the backs of watches, bracelets, and other trinkets. A beautiful example of this work was a watch case executed for Queen Charlotte, adorned with whole-length figures of her two eldest children, for which he received ‘a hatful of guineas.’ Moser was drawing master to George III during his boyhood, and on his accession to the throne was employed to engrave his first great seal. When the art school afterwards known as the St. Martin’s Lane Academy was established about 1736, in Greyhound Court, Strand, he became manager and treasurer and continued in that position until the school was absorbed into the Royal Academy. When he died he was buried in the churchyard of St Paul’s, Covent Garden his funeral being attended by almost all his fellow academicians and pupils. On the day after Moser’s death, a notice of him from the pen of Sir Joshua Reynolds was published, in which he was described as the first gold chaser in the kingdom, possessed of a universal knowledge of all branches of painting and sculpture, and ‘in every sense the father of the present race of artists.