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Richard Street Silver Verge Watch, London 1700

A Richard Street early 18th century silver striking pair cased open face verge key wind watch, the deep plate gilt movement with four decorative turned pillars, fusee chain, with pierced and finely engraved balance cock, silvered regulator disk. The movement signed 'Ric Street, London', numbered 404. Silvered dial with black Roman numerals and five minute Arabic numeral divisions, signed 'R. Street, London', ornately pierced gold hands. The outer silver case with pierced scroll decoration and engraved with vignetters of animals. circa 1700. Provenance: Sotheby's 1982. Other Notes: Richard Street, working at shoe Lane from 1687, became a warden of the watchmakers guild in 1725. Maker of a clock costing 50GBP which was presented by Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Bently, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1708. He is noted in 'Thomas Tompion at the dial and three Crowns' by Jeremy Evans. There is clear evidence that he was responsible for some of Tompions repeating watch movements.

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  • Movement - The technical name for the workings of a clock or watch, and does not include the dial or case.
  • Pair Cased - A pair cased watch is one with a double case. The movement is encased, and for additional protection this is fitted into an outer case.
  • 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.
  • 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    Use of the fusee in clocks was superseded by the "going barrel" in the mid 19th century and for pocket watches at the beginning of the 19th century.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.

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A Richard Street early 18th century silver striking pair cased…