English gold bloodstone and gem set repeating verge Circa 1770

Gold, bloodstone and gem set quarter repeater
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An English yellow gold, bloodstone and gem set pair cased quarter repeating verge pocket watch, circa 1770.
Gilt full plate movement, pierced and engraved balance cock, diamond endstone, signed and numbered gilt cap.
White enamel dial with Roman hours and Arabic minutes. Pierced and engraved inner case, the outer case bloodstone with gold scroll mounts, floral decoration with diamonds, rubies, blue and pink sapphires and an emerald in the form of an insect, maker’s mark SG.
Movement signed. 
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Diameter: 47 mm
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Signed: Fra Perigal 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.