Henry Thornton, London

• gilt full plate movement, decoratively pierced and engraved masked balance cock, plain flat balance, round baluster pillars, fusee and chain, two steel hammers repeating on a bell to the inside case back • gilt metal dust cap • gold champlevé dial, Roman numerals, outer Arabic minute track, blued steel beetle and poker hands • yellow gold inner case, decoratively pierced band engraved with scrolling foliage, birds and dolphins, engraved townscape below the pendant and head to the base, pulse piece below 7 o'clock, the outer repoussé case with chased decoration, set with garnets surrounded by diamonds to the four corners and centre of the back, further garnets and rose-cut diamonds set in between, pierced band, the bezel similarly pierced and with silver set diamond panels, inner case with maker's mark JB • movement and dust cap signed Henry Thornton 1261, dial signed 

Terence Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1970, p. 188, pl. 101

Henry Thornton was a Liveryman of the Clockmakers’ Company between 1699 and 1732. This watch is in the Russian taste, a market in which Thornton specialised. Interestingly, a 1908 inventory by E. Alfred James of the Czar’s collection describes three clocks and two watches by Thornton – one of which is: “Repeating watch in heavy gold cases, gem-set and repoussé case.”