English remarkable clockwatch with centre seconds Circa 1780
- Kenmerk
- FA0312
- Diameter
- 68 mm
- Estimate
- € 10.000 - 18.000
- Price sold
- -
Gilt watch for the Chinese market by John Ilbery
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A fine, gilt brass English silver, pearl and paste set astronomic quarter striking pair cased clockwatch with center seconds and lunar calendar, made for the Chinese market, circa 1780.
Brass gilt full plate with tapered cylindrical pillars, chased and engraved backplate furniture, fusee with chain, verge escapement, three-arm steel balance, flat balance spring, diamond endstone, striking with two hammers on a bell, seconds stop slide under the bezel, gilt dust cover.
Case with pierced, chased and engraved band, the bezel set with green pastes and half-pearls, the back set with an engraved silver panel depicting Chinese figures, including one likely representing the god Bishamon, in a landscape. Inner: two-body, the band pierced with scrolling foliage, and engraved with swags and vases.
White enamel, eccentric meantime dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic quarter hour numerals, outer seconds dial with fifth of a second markers and Arabic five second numerals, subsidiary lunar calendar and strike/silent dials. Gold beetle and poker hands. Dust cover and movement signed.
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Diameter: 68 mm
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Signed: John Ilbery London
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John & William Ilbery Are very well known as being among the best makers who specialized in luxurious watches for the Chinese market. It is interesting to point out the similarities between the watch now offered and the earliest production of William Ilbery. It reveals that William was probably the son of John or at least a relative and successor and that watches for the Eastern market were already produced in the workshop in the time of John. Bishamon The god of happiness and war, Bishamon protects men from demons and disease. Among the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, he is regarded as a god of wealth. Japanese legend holds that Bishamon grants good fortune more swiftly than the flight of an arrow from the bow.
Signed: John Ilbery London






















