Charming English gilt metal Blois type watch Circa 1680

Gilt metal and enamel one-handed verge
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An important English gilt metal, florally enamel Blois type pocket watch, made by Henricus Jones in London, circa 1680. The full hunter case of the watch is made of turquoise enamel, decorated with many flowers, in a very rare case shape with a cover. Inside the case and cover, an enamel painting of very rare quality. The silver champlevé engraved dial with an iron hand has a flower symbol in the middle and radial Roman numerals. A full plate, gilded brass movement, custom-made, Balustre pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, monometallic balance with three arms and blued steel flat hairspring, pierced and engraved silver Louis XIII continental cock, silver regulator disc. The movement plate is signed.
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Diameter 50 mm
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Signed: Henricus Jones, London
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Jones, Henry (or Henricus) (1642-1695)
Henry Jones was one of the most eminent early English watchmakers. Originally apprenticed to Benjamin Hill, he was apprenticed to Edward East (1654). He became a Freeman of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1663, was an Assistant in 1676 and was appointed Master in 1691. During his thirty-year working life, he has taken on fourteen apprentices. He established his business in Inner Temple Lane and continued in the tradition of the East, making the finest clocks and watches contained in superbly crafted cases.
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In October 1692, he matched Edward East’s contribution of £100 to the Clockmakers Charity for “5 poor widows having Annually the Benefitt thereof Forever”. It is an interesting fact that one of the clocks he made for King Charles cost £ 150, a vast sum of money at the time. Jones died in 1695. Examples of Jones’s work are included in the collections of The British Museum, The Guildhall Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (U.S.A.), amongst many others.