English gold enamel watch for the Chinese market Circa 1820

Gold watch made for the Chinese market
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An English 18 carat gold and enamel watch with central seconds, depicting a hunting scene on the back, made by Ilbery in London for the Chinese market, circa 1820. It has a gilt movement with key winding and a Chinese calibre finely decorated with foliate and engraved stylized motifs. Features include a suspended barrel, blued balance spring, duplex escapement, and advance/delay adjustment index on the balance bridge. The plate is signed Ilbery London. The white enamel dial shows Roman numerals for hours and Arabic numerals for minutes, central seconds with a half second beat, and an external pearled minute track with baton indexes. It is signed in the centre Ilbery, London.
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The round hinged case is fully enamelled. The bezel, rim, pendant, and bail are decorated with polychrome champlevé enamel. The back features a finely painted polychrome enamel scene of a young hunter on foot near his horse with two spaniels in a countryside landscape. The cartouche is set with half pearls and a translucent blue enamel border. The gold cuvette has a key winding square.
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Diameter 59 mm
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Weight. 137.3 gr.
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Signed: Ilbery London
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This watch, intended for the Chinese market, combines a high quality Chinese Calibre movement made by William Ilbery of London with a richly decorated gold case. The case features a finely painted enamel miniature attributed to the Genevan enameler Jean-Louis Richter (1766-1841).-
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 The enamel painted scene decorating this watch is inspired by English genre paintings by Royal Academy artists such as Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and others. They specialized in images of romanticized English daily life from the last quarter of the 18th century.
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Their paintings were engraved and sold as prints. These were hugely successful and served as models for Genevan enamelers, including Jean-Louis Richter.
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The duplex escapement in our Chinese Calibre was only found in high quality pocket watches. A duplex escapement wheel has double toothing or two superimposed escapement wheels. Its action is recoil free and similar to that of a chronometer. This makes it an ideal precision tool for providing a seconds indication via a central second hand, a feature highly prized in the Chinese market.