Exceptionally rare English very large 8-day verge Circa 1700

Exceptionally large 8-day verge watch with date
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An English exceptionally rare and very large 8-day pair cased verge watch with date, circa 1700, gilded full plate movement, verge escapement, decoratively pierced and engraved balance cock with scrolling foliage inhabited by a bird with outstretched wings, dolphins, and two birds’ head streamers to the base, the broad and large cock foot with a half-figure holding a basket of fruit upon her head, plain three-arm balance with spring, fusee and chain with large barrel and high count train providing long duration, worm setup below the barrel, tulip and round baluster pillars, signed Peter Garon, London.
Silver champlevé dial, Roman numerals with half-hour divisions between and to the ring beneath, outer Arabic minute ring, date aperture with a gilded disc by 3 o’clock, blued steel tulip and poker hands, outer gilded ring, cartouche to the centre signed Garon, banner beneath signed London, a winged putto below.
Plain silver inner case with ring pendant, outer case with intricate engraved decorative scheme consisting of scrolls, swags, grotesque masks within acanthus leaves, a pair of exotic birds, two putti on either side of the central reserve containing a scene of Orpheus charming the animals with his music, band decorated with grapes and vine leaves, front bezel with acanthus leaves and 4 cherub heads, both cases with maker’s mark AR conjoined in a cameo for Adam Roumieu.
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Diameter: 74 mm
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Signed: Peter Garon London
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This impressive and rare watch is of extraordinarily large size. The movement is designed so that it could be run for approximately 8 days between windings and is one of very few such long duration English movements from the period. In order to achieve this, the movement has a large barrel and fusee and their size has required the maker, in order to save space, to fit two slimmer rounded baluster pillars around them (these are in place of his otherwise broader tulip pillars). There is also a long wheel train and a remote canon pinion. To the movement’s backplate, the cock’s foot is noticeably larger than the table and both cock and foot are elegantly decorated with birds, dolphins, and a half-figure. The outer case is decorated with a complex design including swags, acanthus leaves, exotic birds, grotesque masks and putti, whilst the central scene depicts Orpheus Charming the animals with his music (Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 10: 86-105). 

Peter Garon was born circa 1673 to Hugenot parentage and apprenticed to Richard Baker  until 1694. Brian Loomes in his book, The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, notes that Garon was initially refused freedom of the Clockmakers’ Company as he was deemed an ‘alien’ but was later granted freedom of the City by the Lord Mayor and finally made a Freeman of the Clockmakers’ Company in August 1694. Garon appears to have worked at St. Bartholomew’s Lane End and later at St. Giles Cripplegate. Garon was declared bankrupt in the London Gazette of 1706 but he continued to work and his son, also called Peter, was apprenticed to him in 1713. Garon’s career finally ended in insolvency in 1723.