A late 17th Century English verge with rare differential silver champleve dial in decorative silver pair cases. Deep full plate fire gilt movement with tulip pillars. Fusee and chain with worm and wheel barrel setup between the plates. Winged cock engraved with a portrait below a crown and flanked by military symbols on the table. Below this a glazed semi-circular aperture which reveals the oscillating bob on one arm of the steel balance, pierced and engraved foot and plate for the silver regulator disc. Very rare silver champleve differential dial. At the outer edge standard minute ring and five minute markings with Arabic numerals. In place of the hour numerals a band of deeply chased and engraved military symbols including cannons, flags, swords and helmets. A cartouche at six o’clock signed “Bvkingham – London“. In the centre a small chapter of Roman numerals. The fine single blue steel poker hand rotates once an hour to indicate the minutes. At the same time the small chapter of Roman numerals rotates also, but more slowly (11/12) allowing the hour to be read by the same hand which has a narrow section for this purpose. Plain silver inner case with split bezel, silver pendant and ring bow, maker’s mark “RB”. Unusual silver outer case with cast scene of Venus and Mars taken from a 17th Century German medal, seven joint square hinge.
David Landes in his book Revolution in Time suggests “all the differential dials of the period may have been made by a single artist, who supplied them to master watchmakers for resale under their own names?Every one that I have seen has the same martial emblems on the dial, and they all seem to have come from the same shop”. At least two other watches by Banks with the same style of differential dial are known, one formerly in the Courtney Ilbert Collection was purchased by the British Museum from Christie’s in 1958 and another is in a private collection. These are signed, as the present example, simply J Banks on both the dial and movement but the latter, from a private collection, although signed in the same way on an identical dial, is signed James Banks, Nottingham on the movement. This last watch would seem to clearly establish that the forename Joseph, often assumed for the maker of these particular watches, is incorrect. This last watch is also interesting in that the case, made by the same maker (Richard Blundell) as those belonging to the watch in the British Museum, is hallmarked for 1698, and is the earliest recorded example of a hallmark on a silver watch case.”
Those few examples we have been able to find bear a remarkable number of similarities. Only one, by Garon, does not share features with the rest.
Three by Banks of Nottingham – one in the British Museum, one from the Djanogly collection (Illustrated in Camerer Cuss and later sold by Sothebys) and one in a private collection.
Two by Buckingham, including this watch.
One by Lesturgeon.
One by Cabrier.
The seven watches all share the chased and engraved band of military motifs on the dial with the signature below. Although they are similar they differ slightly in detail. In the examples by Buckingham and Lesturgeon the signature on the dial changes the “U” to “V”. “C” and “G” in both by Buckingham are omitted, likewise the “S” in Lesturgeon is omitted. Some dials also omit the place name.
Four of the watches, including this one, have inner case made by Richard Blundell. Three, again including this one, have cast cases featuring the scene of Venus and Mars. The other example by Buckingham also appears to have a cast outer case but the scene is of military motifs. Both Buckingham examples are the only ones to have mock pendulum cocks. The table of these are also engraved similarly but oddly the scene on the other is upside down! The outer case of at least one of the other watches is a replacement.
The cast silver outer case shows little sign of wear. Often cases of this type lose much of their detail. The complex scene is taken from a silver medal by Georg Hautsch, medalist and coin engraver from Nuremberg (1664-1736). This was probably an interpretation of an even earlier painting.
Based on mythology :- Mars is depicted as the warlike figure (wearing armour and a plumed helmet, with his hands chained) tamed by love (Venus, the goddess of love) as they ride together in the chariot, drawn by two lions, driven by Cupid. At the base of the scene are a woman and a man their chests each pierced by two arrows (possibly Jupiter and Juno). Four of the cupids are holding bows and many of the figures are holding “flaming hearts” (a known motif).
The motto above the scene “AMORIS TELA OMNIUM QUERELA” translates approximately to -“The Web of Love is the Complaint of All”.
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