Gilt & Enamel Pair Cased Pocket Watch

A large verge escapement watch, in very unusual gilt and enamel pair cases

MOVEMENT : A good quality gilt fusee movement, with verge escapement, engraved plate and pierced fan shaped balance cock, blued screws, four round pillars, and silver regulator disk.

Signed Desbois & Wheeler, London and numbered 154.

Running well and in excellent condition.

DIAL : A white enamel dial.

In good condition, with just a couple of flakes on the edge at 5 and 9. Gilt hands.

INNER CASE : Gilt,brass, with maker’s marks WH.

In good condition, with very little wear to the gilding (mostly just the bow and stem). The hinge is fine and the bezel shuts though gapes a little. The high dome bull’s eye crystal is good with just a few light scratches. The bow and stem are original.

OUTER CASE : A gilt and enamel pair case, with matching maker’s marks to the inner. The enamel shows well painted flowers on a pink and white background.

In good condition. The case snaps shut correctly.

The enamel is in good condition with just a little rubbing around the catch button. The brass case is coated with a soft enamel, rather than a hard glassy fired enamel, so this decoration must be later that the case itself. But very attractive and unusual.

Desbois & Wheeler are listed at Gray’s Inn Passage, London from 1790, and this watch was probably made between then and 1800.