Gilt & Enamel Pair Cased Pocket Watch

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

MOVEMENT : A good quality gilt fusee movement, with verge escapement, profusely engraved plate and pierced balance cock, blued screws, diamond endstone, four round pillars, and silver regulator disk. Interesting engraved portrait to the neck of the balance cock.

Signed Ryley, Roe & Newcomb, Coventry and numbered 526.

Running well and in excellent condition.

DIAL : A white enamel dial.

In good condition, with just a small repair right on the edge between 5 and 6. Gilt hands.

INNER CASE : Gilt, with maker’s marks WL below a stag.

In good condition, though with some wear to the gilding. The hinge is fine and the bezel snaps shut though gapes a little. The high dome bull’s eye crystal is fine. The bow and stem are original, though the bow is a little bent.

OUTER CASE : A gilt and enamel pair case, with no visible maker’s marks. The enamel shows well painted flowers on a white background.

In good condition though the catch button and catch are replacements. The case snaps shut correctly.
The enamel is in good condition with just one scratch on the rim of the bezel at 8. 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.

Ryley & Roe are listed in Coventry in 1805.

The case maker is William Lindsley of Bunhill Row, London.