English pair cased miniature gold enamel watch Circa 1818

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Kenmerk: TD0110
Diameter: 32 mm

Estimate: € 6.000 - 11.000
Price sold: -

Gold and enamel open faced verge watch
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A remarkable pair-cased miniature gold enamel verge pocket watch for the Ottoman market, circa 1818.
The outer case is an 18-carat gold/polychrome enamel piece. The inner case is 18-carat gold, enamel dial, full plate movement, chain fusee, and three-arm steel balance.
The outer case of this extremely rare gold and enamel verge pocket watch has a wavy rim decorated with Champlevé enamel flowers on the inside. The back has a central translucent red cartouche with a bouquet of summer flowers against an engine-turned ground. It is surrounded by opaque borders with patterns of green, white and light blue enamelled with red flowers repeated on the front.

Both cases bear the case maker’s mark AN and were created by goldsmith Augustus Newman at 7 Plumptree Street, Bloomsbury, London; his mark first appeared on November 4, 1813.
The Movement and case design of these watches intended for the Turkish market were already outmoded around 1810.
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Diameter: 32 mm
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Weight: 43 g
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Signed: Ray & Montague London
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In later years, nevertheless, Edward Prior and some of his contemporaries, such as George Prior (II) and George Charle.
Markwick Markham-Perigal and Isaac Rogers specialized in this type of watch because there was an ongoing demand from tradition or true love of the elaborately ornamented movements and cases in the Turkish market.
Many of these watches – the one we have here may be among them –never even left England because their exotic beauty had its devotees in their own country too. These buyers often kept the watch safely in a drawer like jewellery, which explains the mint condition of some of these marvellous pieces. Renowned goldsmiths and jewellers John Ray and James Montague of 22 Denmark Street in Soho worked as partners from 1800 to 1821 and specialized in ceremonial swords, gaming tiles and other objects.