James Hoddell & Co, London

• gilt three-quarter plate movement, lever escapement, twin winding barrels and fusees chain, bi-metallic compensation balance, some jewels carried in screwed gold settings to the back-plate, 18k gold polished cuvette with winding and setting apertures • gold dial, engine-turned oval cartouches carrying Roman numerals, the ground with decorative stylized floral engraving, outer pink pearled minute track, engine-turned subsidiary seconds, the dial edge with applied green gold floral decoration • 18k yellow gold case, the back with arched floral engraved decoration to the edge, repeated star form engraved decoration surrounding a central blank cartouche, the bezels, band and bow with similar engraved decoration, case back and cuvette hallmarked 1874, case and cuvette numbered 14944 • dial and movement signed Jas Hoddell & Co., Patent, 15 Northampton Square, London, movement numbered 14944 

 

This watch, with twin barrels and fusees, is made according to the maker's own patent, which was registered in December 1857 as patent number 3049.  The English did not make many long duration watches, of those that they did make, only a handful from any period survive.  The present lot is important not only due to its long duration, but also because it has survived in such very good condition.  James Hoddell & Co. are listed in Brian Loomes, Vol.2, Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, First edition, 1976 as working in Coventry and London 1860-1880.