John Wilter London. A silver and polychrome enamel pair cased verge watch no 6416 English circa 1770, gilt full plate movement signed and numbered John Wilter, London no. 6416, verge fusee escapement, pierced and engraved balance cock, baluster pillars, silver champleve dial signed Moore, Roman numerals, arcaded Arabic minute track, gilt sunburst hands, embossed scrollwork to the centre, aperture for date, inner silver case with winding hole, outer case chased and engraved with foliate scrolls and a painted enamel miniature of an 18th century couple in an outdoor setting at the centre, movement signed and numbered, dial signed, diameter 56 mm. Accompanied by a key.
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- Foliate - Decorated with leaves or leaf-like forms.
- Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
- Pair Cased - A pair cased watch is one with a double case. The movement is encased, and for additional protection this is fitted into an outer case.
- Polychrome - Made or finished in many colours. For furniture, it is used to indicated a painted finish.
- Movement - The technical name for the workings of a clock or watch, and does not include the dial or case.
- Embossed / Repousse - Embossing, also known as repousse, is the technique of decorating metal with raised designs, by pressing or beating out the design from the reverse side of the object.It is the opposite of chasing, where the decoration is applied from the front. An embossed or repoussed object may have chasing applied to finish off the design.
- Date Aperture - A date aperture is a cut out section in the face of a watch or clock, displaying the day of the month.
- Fusee - The fusee movement was used in clocks and pocket watches from the mid 17th century. The fusee is a cone shaped drum within the works that is linked to the barrel of the spring, usually by a length of chain.
As the mainspring loses its tension over time, the cone shaped barrel compensates for this by increasing the tension, by pulling the mainspring tighter, thus ensuring the time remains constant.
Use of the fusee in clocks was superseded by the "going barrel" in the mid 19th century and for pocket watches at the beginning of the 19th century.
The fusee continued to be used in marine chronometers until the 1970s.
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