Verge Watch with Automaton Dial

A rare automaton dial watch in silver pair cases.

MOVEMENT : Gilt verge movement, with engraved and pierced balance cock and plate. Four round baluster pillars, blued screws and large silver regulator disk.

The steel lever at 4 can be slid to stop or restart the movement.

Signed Rich. Herring, NEWARK and numbered 1193.

Working, and in good condition, with a few scratches to the top plate.. The stop/start lever is also working correctly.

DIAL : Polychrome enamel dial, showing a busy rural scene. Beautifully painted, with lake, house, mountains, windmill and miller carrying a sack into the mill. The sails on the windmill, which are nicely made and painted, rotate within a subsidiary seconds dial.

The dial is in very good condition, with just some flakes around the aperture at the top of the windmill, which are hidden by the rotating sales.

Brass hands.

INNER CASE : Silver, with London hallmarks for 1801, and case maker’s mark TC.

In very good condition. The hinge is fine and the bezel snaps shut.

The high dome crystal is good.

OUTER CASE : A silver pair case, with hallmarks and maker’s mark matching the inner.

In good condition, with a few scratches. The catch button is worn, but the catch and hinge are fine and the case snaps shut.

Richard Herring is listed in Newark, Nottinghamshire between 1791 ans 1810.

The case maker is Thomas Carpenter of Islington Road, London.