Ellicott, London

• full plate gilt cylinder movement, pierced and engraved balance cock with asymmetric foliate decoration and diamond endstone, fusee and chain, pillars with pierced foliate scroll sides • white enamel dial, Roman numerals, outer Arabic minute track, blued steel beetle and poker hands • gilt metal dust cap, plain gold inner case, the pendant with stylized floral boss to the top, gold repoussé outer case depicting the Judgement of Hercules, inner case with London hallmarks for 1762 and maker's mark HT possibly for Henry Cleaver Taylor, repoussé case signed Manly fe • movement and cuvette signed Ellicott, movement, inner case and cuvette numbered 5141

Sotheby's London, 2nd May, 1966, lot 132

Victoria & Albert Museum, Rococo – Art and Design in Hogarth’s England,  16 May – 30 September 1984 exhibit H25

Terence Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1970, p. 218, pl. 128

Richard Edgcumbe, The Art of the Gold Chaser, figs. 64a, b & c

Rococo – Art and Design in Hogarth’s England, Victoria & Albert Museum, Trefoil Books, p. 136

The repoussé outer case  by Henry Manly depicts the Judgement of Hercules, after a painting by Paolo de Matteis, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The scene retains superb definition and has a wonderful lustre.  Hercules is seen making a choice between Virtue and Vice, the latter reclining into the surrounding asymmetric cartouche to his right. Ellicott’s movement incorporates one of his distinctive pillar designs of single fluted columns, flanked by pierced foliate scrolls. Also notable is the continuously tapering minute hand, without banding or ribbing, which is typical of Ellicott watches from this period. 

For a note on Manly, see lot 47.