UNSIGNED | A SUPERB AND EXTREMELY RARE SILVER AND GILT-METAL OCTAGONAL WATCH WITH SINGLE HAND IN THE FORM OF A LIZARDCIRCA 1620

• Movement: gilded full plate octagonal, verge escapement, decoratively pierced and floral engraved pinned-on balance cock and foot, plain flat steel balance, wheel and click set-up with further floral engraved cock and foot, fusee and gut line, round baluster pillars, the posts and arbors finished as flowerheads• Dial: silver with engraved townscape beside river, a figure in the foreground carrying a sack, chapter ring engraved with Roman numerals and half-hour divisions, gold and green enamel single hand in the form of a lizard, the silver dial set upon a gilded plate engraved to the edge with foliage and trophies of love• Case: silver and gilt-metal, hinged bi-metallic panel mounted above the movement, one side silver engraved with a village scene within love trophies and dated 1597, the other gilt-metal engraved with a coat of arms, the outside of the silver covers engraved with putti playing musical instruments and carrying emblems of love, the inside of the covers engraved with monograms surrounded by amatory emblems including flaming and pierced hearts, quiver of arrows, caduceus, cornucopia and an anchor, the silver band engraved with rabbits, hounds and a stag, foliate pendant, short boss-form terminal

Marryat Collection
Time Museum, Rockford Illinois, Inventory No. 2340
Sotheby's New York, Masterpieces from the Time Museum, 2 December 1999, lot 37
Antiquorum Geneva, The Evolution of Forms in Horology, 16-17 November 2002, lot 25

H. Marryat, Watches, Henlein to Tompion, London: W. J. Pollock, 1938, p.36

Charming and beautifully executed, the present watch is unsigned but the case and its movement are most likely to have been made in France, although given the significant number of French makers working in England at this time, it is also possible that the watch was executed in London. Most unusually, when the back cover is opened, a hinged inner panel is found to cover the movement. The inner panel is dated 1597 and this has frequently been taken to be the date of the watch, however, the shape of the case and the style of decoration would suggest a date of production around the early to mid 1620s. As the watch is covered in love tokens and carries a coat of arms to the inside of the dated panel, it would appear that the year 1597 was of significance to the original owner - the fact that the watch may have been made some 25 years after 1597 may suggest it was some form of anniversary token. The coat of arms argent a chevron azure between nine bezants - has not yet been identified but it does appear to be English. Watches with hands in the form of animals are especially rare. Baillie in his book Watches, their History, Style and Decoration (1929, p.117) mentions just three watches that were known to him with hands in the form of lizards, one of which (in the collection of the Louvre) also has a translucent green enamel covering the lizard.