English pair-cased watch with silver champlevé dial Circa 1695

Rare tortoiseshell clock pocket watch by Joseph Foster
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An early and rare, English pair-cased verge clock watch with day and night indicator, circa 1695.
Two cases: a brass silver outer case which is covered with tortoiseshell and finely ornamented with inlaid silver flowers, scrolls and birds; and a plain silver inner case. Silver Champlevé dial with retrograde Roman hours for night and day. In the upper half of the centre is a semicircular opening showing the phases of the sun on an engraved gold sun disc or the moon phases on an engraved silver moon and inlaid stars on a blued disc, which revolves once every 24 hours. When the sun disappears on the right side of the display, the moon appears on the left. The lower half of the dial is decorated with chased flower scrolls and fantasy birds and a signature cartouche. Full plate fire gilt movement with pillars, keywind, fusee and chain with worm and wheel barrel set-up between the plates, pierced and engraved winged cock with mask, pierced and engraved foot, three-arm steel balance, and silver regulator disc.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Weight: 127 g
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Signed: Joseph Foster, London
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Joseph Foster is recorded in G.H. Baillies “Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World” as apprenticed in 1684, gaining his freedom of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1691 and working from Exchange Alley, London until 1707.