English gilt metal verge with repoussé décor Circa 1770

Gilt metal, gold, tortoiseshell covered pocket watch
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An English gilt metal, gold and tortoiseshell covered triple cased pocket watch, made by Joseph Martineau Senior in London, circa 1770. Gilded metal open faced keywinding pocket watch, with its protective case. Gilded metal triple case with horn panels painted in imitation of tortoise shell, with 18- or 20 carat yellow gold piquédécor and stitched decoration. The repoussé technique showing The Marriage of Alexander and Roxana or Alexander Crowning Roxana. White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track with Arabic numerals and blued steel Poker & Beetle hands. A gilded brass movement, fusee and chain, verge escapement, monometallic balance and blued steel flat hairspring, pierced and engraved gilded English cock with dragon, chimaera and foliage; back winding. Signature on the dial and movement.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Signed: Joseph Martineau Senior, London
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Some damage to the outer case.
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The repoussé work on this watch has remained in near mint condition thanks to the triple protective case. This type of watch is usually found in gold or even in silver. Very few examples made in copper metal, then gilded, exist. Note also that this watch has just been entirely cleaned by a watchmaker specialising in antique watches.
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Joseph Martineau Senior
English watchmaker from a French Huguenot family, many of whose members practised in Rouen in Normandy (North-West France). This highly skilled watchmaker enjoyed a great reputation in London. He was active there between 1744 and 1770 (or 1794?), establishing himself first in Orange Street, then in St. Martin’s Court. Examples of his work can be found in the catalogues of old and prestigious collections, such as those of Ilbert, Chamberlain and Pierpont Morgan. Several of his watches, both simple and repeating, clock-watches and nécessaire, are now kept in many museums:
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-Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum
-Dresden, Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon
-Geneva, Patek Philippe Museum
-New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A very important and impressive silver carriage clock-watch, with quarter repeater, music and bell chimes, case chiselled by Christopher Heckel, was part of the Marcel van Cauwenbergh collection, Brussels, and was sold at auction by our company in 1989 in Hong Kong. Richard Edgcumbe, in his remarkable book “The Art of the Gold Chaser” Oxford and London, 2000, refers to this watch but also to some other Martineau watches with repoussé cases signed by Henry Moser, Parbury, Wieland and John Gastrell.