English verge pocket watch with repoussé decoration Circa 1768

Gold open faced pair cased pocket watch by Thomas Palmer
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An English pair cased verge pocket watch with repoussé decoration Joseph is sold by his brothers, circa 1768.
Two cases: an outer case – gold, repoussé in very high relief depicting Joseph, who is sold into Egyptian slavery by his brothers; decorated with engraved and chased volutes and scrollwork, and with a large lateral hinge; and an inner case – gold, polished, with case maker’s punch mark IH, and seven-piece hinge. Enamel dial with Roman radial hours and gold Louis XVI hands. Full plate movement, keywind, fire gilt, signed, and with applied floral decorations, chain/fusee, square baluster pillars, three-arm steel balance, fine florally engraved, and pierced balance cock with mascaron.
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Diameter: 47 mm
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Weight: 96 g
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Signed: Thomas Palmer, London
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Thomas Palmer, English watchmaker
Thomas Palmer was a watchmaker in Holborn, London, around 1770. His will was published on February 7, 1812.
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Joseph and his brothers
Of all his 12 children, Jacob loved his 11th son Joseph most and presented him with a beautiful coat of many colours. Joseph’s ten half-brothers disliked that he was their father’s favourite and barely spoke to him. When Joseph had two dreams in which the whole family bowed to him, the half-brothers started to despise Joseph truly and began plotting against him. When their father sent Joseph to his brothers’ herds one day, they seized the opportunity and threw him in an empty cistern. Intending to kill him initially, they decided it would be better to sell him to a group of travelling Ishmaelite slave traders for 20 pieces of silver. The traders sold 17-year-old Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, the captain of the pharaoh’s guard. At home, the brothers showed their father Joseph’s coat which they had stained with the blood of a lamb. Jacob mourned his son, whom he thought dead, for many years.