English self-strike watch for the Chinese market Circa 1800

Gilt pair-cased gentleman’s pocket watch by William Travers
–
A representative pair-cased English gentleman’s clock watch with stoppable centre-seconds and quarter-hour/hour self-strike – for the Chinese market, circa 1800.
Two cases: outer case – fire gilt, engraved, ornamented, pierced, with studded with red and white gemstones and case maker’s punch mark TG; inner case – fire gilt, richly florally engraved and pierced with Chinese landscape scenery, slide for silence. Enamel dial with Roman radial hours, Arabic minutes, centre seconds, and gold Poker & Beetle hands. Brass full plate movement, keywind, lavishly florally engraved, numbered, and signed; with protective cap, balance stop device, one hammer, chain/fusee, moulded pillars, cylinder escapement, three-arm steel balance, fine florally engraved, pierced balance cock with grotesque face, applied silver regulator scale, and chatoned diamond endstone on balance.
–
Diameter: 64 mm
–
Weight: 221 g
–
Signed: William Travers, London
–
William Travers, English watchmaker
On November 27, 1753, William Travers was born in the parish of Saint Helens, Lancashire, the fifth child of Matthew Travers and Anne Chaddock. Matthew’s father was listed as a shoemaker in Windle at birth. William was the first in a line of watchmakers and chronometer makers in the Travers generations. William was trained by the watchmaker John Barnes in Liverpool from 1769. After his apprenticeship in Liverpool, he relocated to work on Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell ‘, London.