LOT 67
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Henricus Harpur, Londini A rare and exceptional silver and leather covered pair cased pre-balance spring calendar verge watch of historical interest | Circa 1665-70
作品估价：CHF 20,000 - 30,000
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图录号：
67
拍品名称：
Henricus Harpur, Londini A rare and exceptional silver and leather covered pair cased pre-balance spring calendar verge watch of historical interest | Circa 1665-70
拍品描述：
• gilded full plate, verge escapement, signed Henricus Harpur, Londini, three-wheel train with gut line fusee, flat two-arm steel balance, screwed-on balance cock and long foot decoratively pierced and engraved with flowers and foliage, worm and wheel set-up with silver dial and Arabic numerals filled with red wax, surrounded by decorative foliate-form blued steel brackets, pierced pillars
• silver and gilded brass dial, the silver chapter ring with Roman numerals filled with black wax, inner ring with quarter hour divisions filled with red wax, centre pierced and engraved with flowers against a stippled gilded background, outer silver ring for calendar, the date engraved with Arabic numerals filled with red wax, date indicated via blued steel bug mounted on a revolving decoratively engraved gilt-brass ring, single turned blued steel hand with floriate-form tip
• plain silver inner case, the back with shuttered winding aperture and engraved with the arms of Oliver Cromwell, outer case leather covered and finely decorated with elaborate silver piqué decoration, eight roundels towards the centre with fleur-de-lys motifs, outer border with repeated fleur-de-lys roundels around perimeter, square hinge, the pendant with later ring
diameter outer case 58mm, inner case 51mm
Albert Schloss Collection (c. late 19th early 20th century
Gélis Collection (c. post 1913)
Malcolm Gardner 1938
Sotheby’s, London, Important Clocks, Watches, Wristwatches, Barometers and Mechanical Musical Instruments, 1 October 1998, lot 249
F. J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, London: Batsford, Second Edition, 1904, p. 169 and ill. p. 170, fig. 209 (same refs. in Third [1911] and Fourth [1922] Editions).
Malcolm Gardner, Catalogue of Interesting Items on Horology and Kindred Subjects, Cat. No. 4, September 1938. Item no. 1327, Illustration front cover and frontispiece showing case front, case back, back of outer leather covered case. Description p. 41.
Selby Whittingham, Henry Harper or Harpur 1642-1708, Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1998, vol. 24, no. 3. See pp. 225-228 for a biography of Henry Harpur, the present watch is illustrated p. 228, figs. 3 & 4.
An exceptional 17th century watch that remains in remarkable condition, this well-known timepiece by Henry Harpur has a provenance stretching back well over a hundred years. Its virtue as a wonderful example of early English watchmaking has ensured its place in a succession of important collections including those of Albert Schloss (late 19th/early 20th Century) and Edouard Gélis (b.1876-d.1955). The watch is illustrated and described in the 1904, second edition of F. J. Britten’s famous work, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers. The book features a drawing of the watch that is accompanied by Britten’s description as follows: “A very handsome watch by Henry Harpur…It has a silver dial with day of the month ring and beautifully pierced centre; the inner case is of silver having on the back the arms of Cromwell, to whose daughter Bridget the ownership of the watch is assigned”.[1] Although for many decades the original ownership of the watch was ascribed to Cromwell’s daughter Bridget (1624-1662), Bridget died in 1662 two years before Harpur received his Freedom from the Clockmakers’ Company. However, it is possible that one of Oliver Cromwell’s surviving children, or a later member of the family, had his coat of arms engraved on the watch as a memorial. Oliver Cromwell had nine children with his wife Elizabeth Bourchier, including three other daughters, two of whom, Mary (1637-1713) and Frances (1638-1720), outlived Bridget.
Henry Harpur (also Harper) was born in c. 1642 at the start of the English Civil War and was apprenticed during the Interregnum to Humfrey Peirce [sic] on 23 July 1657. He was made free of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1664, taking a series of his own apprentices over the following years. On 27 December 1670 he married Hester Bowtell, at which date he had a house and shop in the parish of St. Michael Cornhill close to London’s fashionable and bustling Royal Exchange. Henry Harpur died on 22 March 1708 and was buried at St Mary, Islington, where he also had property. [2] He is known to have made both watches and long case clocks. By all accounts, Harper had a fractious relationship with the Clockmakers’ Company. He was made an Assistant of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1682 but rarely attended meetings. Following a spat with the Company in 1687 over his employment of French workers, he was again in dispute in 1688 bringing a lawsuit against the Clockmakers’ Company in relation to their enforcement of quarterage payments. It seems that, perhaps in revenge, the Company raided his shop in July 1688, seizing 12 steel watch chains; in return, Harper sued them for trespass.[3]
A further watch with date ring by Henry Harpur, previously in the Ilbert Collection and now at British Museum has engraved chapter and calendar rings closely comparable to those on the present watch. Rather than a pierced dial centre, the British Museum’s watch is engraved with a central vase of flowers. The watch also has a leather covered outer case with silver piqué decoration, however, the decoration found on the present watch is, by comparison, both more intricate and in far finer condition. See also: Camerer Cuss, T. P. & Camerer Cuss T. A., The Camerer Cuss Book of Antique Watches, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, revised edition, 1976, for a later (circa 1685) calendar watch signed by Henry Harper and op. cit. p. 200 for a watch signed Henricus Harpur with irregular, tumbling Roman numerals and outer leather covered case with silver piqué work (formerly in the Chester Beatty Collection, sold Sotheby & Co. 17 June 1963, lot 183).
[1] F. J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, London: Batsford, Second Edition, 1904, p. 169 and ill. p. 169.
[2] Selby Whittingham, Henry Harper or Harpur 1642-1708, Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1998, vol. 24, p. 225
[3] Brian Loomes, The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, London: N.A.G. Press, 1981, pp. 282-283.
• silver and gilded brass dial, the silver chapter ring with Roman numerals filled with black wax, inner ring with quarter hour divisions filled with red wax, centre pierced and engraved with flowers against a stippled gilded background, outer silver ring for calendar, the date engraved with Arabic numerals filled with red wax, date indicated via blued steel bug mounted on a revolving decoratively engraved gilt-brass ring, single turned blued steel hand with floriate-form tip
• plain silver inner case, the back with shuttered winding aperture and engraved with the arms of Oliver Cromwell, outer case leather covered and finely decorated with elaborate silver piqué decoration, eight roundels towards the centre with fleur-de-lys motifs, outer border with repeated fleur-de-lys roundels around perimeter, square hinge, the pendant with later ring
diameter outer case 58mm, inner case 51mm
Albert Schloss Collection (c. late 19th early 20th century
Gélis Collection (c. post 1913)
Malcolm Gardner 1938
Sotheby’s, London, Important Clocks, Watches, Wristwatches, Barometers and Mechanical Musical Instruments, 1 October 1998, lot 249
F. J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, London: Batsford, Second Edition, 1904, p. 169 and ill. p. 170, fig. 209 (same refs. in Third [1911] and Fourth [1922] Editions).
Malcolm Gardner, Catalogue of Interesting Items on Horology and Kindred Subjects, Cat. No. 4, September 1938. Item no. 1327, Illustration front cover and frontispiece showing case front, case back, back of outer leather covered case. Description p. 41.
Selby Whittingham, Henry Harper or Harpur 1642-1708, Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1998, vol. 24, no. 3. See pp. 225-228 for a biography of Henry Harpur, the present watch is illustrated p. 228, figs. 3 & 4.
An exceptional 17th century watch that remains in remarkable condition, this well-known timepiece by Henry Harpur has a provenance stretching back well over a hundred years. Its virtue as a wonderful example of early English watchmaking has ensured its place in a succession of important collections including those of Albert Schloss (late 19th/early 20th Century) and Edouard Gélis (b.1876-d.1955). The watch is illustrated and described in the 1904, second edition of F. J. Britten’s famous work, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers. The book features a drawing of the watch that is accompanied by Britten’s description as follows: “A very handsome watch by Henry Harpur…It has a silver dial with day of the month ring and beautifully pierced centre; the inner case is of silver having on the back the arms of Cromwell, to whose daughter Bridget the ownership of the watch is assigned”.[1] Although for many decades the original ownership of the watch was ascribed to Cromwell’s daughter Bridget (1624-1662), Bridget died in 1662 two years before Harpur received his Freedom from the Clockmakers’ Company. However, it is possible that one of Oliver Cromwell’s surviving children, or a later member of the family, had his coat of arms engraved on the watch as a memorial. Oliver Cromwell had nine children with his wife Elizabeth Bourchier, including three other daughters, two of whom, Mary (1637-1713) and Frances (1638-1720), outlived Bridget.
Henry Harpur (also Harper) was born in c. 1642 at the start of the English Civil War and was apprenticed during the Interregnum to Humfrey Peirce [sic] on 23 July 1657. He was made free of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1664, taking a series of his own apprentices over the following years. On 27 December 1670 he married Hester Bowtell, at which date he had a house and shop in the parish of St. Michael Cornhill close to London’s fashionable and bustling Royal Exchange. Henry Harpur died on 22 March 1708 and was buried at St Mary, Islington, where he also had property. [2] He is known to have made both watches and long case clocks. By all accounts, Harper had a fractious relationship with the Clockmakers’ Company. He was made an Assistant of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1682 but rarely attended meetings. Following a spat with the Company in 1687 over his employment of French workers, he was again in dispute in 1688 bringing a lawsuit against the Clockmakers’ Company in relation to their enforcement of quarterage payments. It seems that, perhaps in revenge, the Company raided his shop in July 1688, seizing 12 steel watch chains; in return, Harper sued them for trespass.[3]
A further watch with date ring by Henry Harpur, previously in the Ilbert Collection and now at British Museum has engraved chapter and calendar rings closely comparable to those on the present watch. Rather than a pierced dial centre, the British Museum’s watch is engraved with a central vase of flowers. The watch also has a leather covered outer case with silver piqué decoration, however, the decoration found on the present watch is, by comparison, both more intricate and in far finer condition. See also: Camerer Cuss, T. P. & Camerer Cuss T. A., The Camerer Cuss Book of Antique Watches, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, revised edition, 1976, for a later (circa 1685) calendar watch signed by Henry Harper and op. cit. p. 200 for a watch signed Henricus Harpur with irregular, tumbling Roman numerals and outer leather covered case with silver piqué work (formerly in the Chester Beatty Collection, sold Sotheby & Co. 17 June 1963, lot 183).
[1] F. J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, London: Batsford, Second Edition, 1904, p. 169 and ill. p. 169.
[2] Selby Whittingham, Henry Harper or Harpur 1642-1708, Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1998, vol. 24, p. 225
[3] Brian Loomes, The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, London: N.A.G. Press, 1981, pp. 282-283.