English rare gilt-metal and rock crystal watch Circa 1640

Gilt metal and rock crystal watch
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An English fine and very rare gilt metal and rock crystal watch, circa 1640, gilded full plate movement, verge escapement, decoratively pierced and engraved screwed-on balance cock and foot, flat steel balance, worm and wheel set-up, fusee and gut line, Egyptian pillars, movement signed John Smeaton in Yorke.
Gilded dial, applied narrow silver chapter ring with Roman numerals and half-hour divisions between, engraved center with a lakeside scene, winged figure above, surrounded by scrolling foliage, two squirrels either side of the catch and the foreshortened front and back of a rabbit above 10 and 2 o’clock, blued steel hand.
Case with engraved gilt metal bezels, multi-faceted rock crystal covers, pendant with acanthus leaf decoration, and long terminal
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Diameter: 54 mm   Width: 31 mm
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Signed: John Smeaton in Yorke

Provincially made watches from this period are rare. John Smeaton of York was granted freedom of the city in 1646 and died at his estate in Austhorpe, near Leeds in 1686. A silver watch with date indication by John Smeaton can be found in the collection of the British Museum.

It is quite possible that this watch was completed over a few years, perhaps interrupted by the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642. The decoration of the case and dial would suggest a date just prior to 1640, yet even though Smeaton would have been active before his freedom, the movement, which has clearly been made for this case and dial, hints at a date a few years later. The large pendant is decorated with acanthus leaves and its size would have allowed the watch to hang more evenly than would otherwise have been possible due to the depth of the faceted crystal case back.