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18th/19th Century French Gold Enamel Scene Watch

A small gold pair case watch, the plain gilt fullplate with fusee, with pierced and engraved balance bridge cock. verge escapement. Unsigned. Plain columns. The inner case with polychrome enamel scene to rear depicting a country courtship scene, engraved scrollwork to both front and rear bezels. The face with enamel dial with Roman numerals for the hours with outer Arabic ring for the minutes, gilt beetle and poker hands, winding hole at the fourth hour. The outer case with glass to rear to view the enamel scene. Likely French, late 18th to 19th century. Diameter: 1.38 in. Provenance: The collection of Dr Trevor Hyde, Sydney

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  • Polychrome - Made or finished in many colours. For furniture, it is used to indicated a painted finish.
  • Verge Escapement - A verge escapement is an early mechanical escapement used in clocks and other timekeeping devices. It is an early form of the escapement mechanism, which is used to regulate the movement of the hands of a clock or watch. The verge escapement consists of a vertical shaft called the verge, which is mounted on the clock's main plate. Attached to the verge are two pallets, which engage with the teeth of the escape wheel. As the escape wheel turns, the pallets alternately lock and release it, allowing the movement of the clock to be regulated. The verge escapement was widely used in early mechanical clocks, but it was eventually replaced by the more accurate and reliable anchor escapement.
  • 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    Use of the fusee in clocks was superseded by the "going barrel" in the mid 19th century and for pocket watches at the beginning of the 19th century.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.

This item has been included into following indexes:

A small gold pair case watch, the plain gilt fullplate with…