English silver pair cased key wound pocket watch Circa 1795

Silver verge in pair cases by Norton
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An English silver pair cased key wound pocket watch, circa 1790-1800. The fire gilded movement with a verge escapement. White enamel dial with Arabic hours, outer minute divisions, quarter hour markers and black moon hands. A plain inner case, the outer case covered with tortoiseshell. Dial and movement signed.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Weight incl. outer case: 150 gr.
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Signed: Norton London DHM
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Eardley Norton, born in 1728 in Lincolnshire and died in 1792, was an English watch and chronometer maker of great repute. He apprenticed as a clockmaker to Robert Dawson of Alford on May 25th, 1743. In 1760, Norton was working in London at 49 John Street, Clerkenwell. He was a member of the Clockmakers’ Company from 1770 until the day he died.

Norton mainly made complicated timepieces but also had his name on some cheaper watches, which he signed with Yeldrae (Eardley backwards). Further, his name was sometimes faked on Swiss watches. In 1771, he patented a new type of striking mechanism for clocks and watches. He made George III a Royal watch collection, of which the showpiece was an astronomical clock with four dials. Norton received 1.042 pounds sterling for these watches, a considerable sum at that time. Another notable work is the musical clock he made for the Russian Tsarina Katharina.