Rare Silver Cast Case Pocket Watch by Benjamin Hill 1650

A rare silver cast case pocket watch, maker Benjamin Hill…
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A rare silver cast case pocket watch, maker Benjamin Hill English circa 1650 4.7 cm diameter, 5.5 cm high. A rare silver cast case pocket watch, maker Benjamin Hill. English circa 1650. This watch has a cast case in the form of the seeded Rose, watches with cast cases are quite rare. The movement is typical of the period, having a pinned-on balance cock, worm and wheel set-up, engraved potence and narrow Egyptian pillars. The dial is silver, the centre beautifully engraved with a Tudor rose, surrounded by fine matting. The bezel is a fairly early example of the split variety for retaining the glass. This watch, like the other Benjamin Hill watch, was made before the invention of the balance spring and the balance cock has been designed for a watch with no balance spring. fusee and gut drive and steel balance wheel. The case of the watch has been modified at some time to allow the movement to be wound through the case, and a shutter to keep out dust has been fitted to it (shown closed). Benjamin Hill was apprenticed to Richard Child through the Blacksmiths Company for 8 years on the 3rd July 1632 and was 'sworn a free brother' of the Clockmakers Company on 30th November 1640 and was Master of the Clockmakers Company in 1657. He died early in 1670 and was buried at St Dunstan's-in-the-West, Fleet Street, London where it appears he has been Senior Churchwarden. Reference: Jeremy Evans article in the A H S Journal March 2001, at fig. 10, There is a Benjamin Hill watch apparently with a cast case, although in a different pattern. Illustrated: page 70 and 71 of Antique Watches. Provenance: Terence Camerer Cuss's own collection and was purchased in 1979 for 6,500 English Pounds. For an extraordinary astronomical pocket watch by this maker see Sothebys London The Celebration of the English Watch Part IV, George Daniels 20th Century Innovator. 6 July 2017 Lot 3. Dimensions: 4.7 cm diameter, 5.5 cm high.

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  • Bezel - On a clock or watch, the bezel is the metal frame into which the watch or clock glass is fitted. In clocks, the bezel may include a hinge and a flange, in effect a door to the face of the clock. In jewellery the bezel is a band of metal with a projecting lip that holds the gemstone in its setting.
  • Movement - The technical name for the workings of a clock or watch, and does not include the dial or case.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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