German octagonal one-handed verge pendant watch Circa 1625

Unsigned gilt metal pendant watch
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A German gilt metal octagonal pendant watch with later made stack freed movement, circa 1625. The watch features an associated (and likely later) iron full plate with verge escapement, dumbbell balance, hog’s bristle regulator, and stack freed mounted to the backplate. It also includes a later silver dial with engraved Roman numerals and half-hour divisions, a centre chased and engraved with flowers and foliage, and a turned gilded hand. The gilt-brass octagonal case is pierced with a heart below 6 o’clock, and the hinged back is pierced and engraved with a scene of The Man of Sorrows – Christ seated upon a pedestal beneath the cross and surrounded by instruments of the passion. The bezel is later glazed, and the case sides and pendant are ridged.
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Length including pendant: 60 mm
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Width: 44 mm
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Signed: No name
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The design of this watch’s case closely resembles a case housed in the British Museum, previously part of the Ilbert Collection. The case is depicted in Tait, H. and Coole’s Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum, I – The Stackfreed, revised by David Thompson in 1987, on pages 73-74 and plate 31. Similar to the example in the British Museum, the case of the present lot was likely originally intended for a striking watch movement. The intricately pierced apertures are arranged and shaped similarly to the watch in the British Museum, featuring scenes of the same subject, albeit with slight differences in execution and arrangement.