John Halsted, London

• gilt full plate verge movement, masked pierced and engraved balance cock, striking on a bell, round baluster pillars, fusee and chain • gilt champlevé dial, Roman numerals, outer Arabic minute ring, fleur de lys half hour markers, cartouche to the centre with cherub's head, fine beetle and poker hands • inner case centred by a rosette and with engraved initials, engraved bust of a young woman beneath a canopy flanked by a lion and a unicorn to the pierced and engraved band, outer case depicting twelve female busts alternating wearing crowns, monogram to the centre, pulse piece at 5 o'clock, hallmarked 1712, case maker’s mark EE, possibly Edward East II • dial signed, movement signed in Gothic script John Halsted, London

Ralph Bernal Collection, Christie and Manson, April 1855, lot 3878

 

Terence Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1970, pp. 160-161, pl. 86

G. H . Baillie, Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, 1947, p. 141.

John Halsted was Free of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1698. This watch is an excellent early example of embossed and chased work, with the repeated use of a series of single punches.  At the auction of the Ralph Bernal Collection at Christie and Manson in 1855, it was noted that the present watch was given by Queen Anne to Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. In her will, the Duchess of Marlborough wrote: “…I give to Mrs. Ann Pattinson my striking watch which formerly belonged to her mistress my Lady Sunderland…” Lady Sunderland was the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough’s second daughter, Ann Spencer, who died in 1716.

It is well known that Queen Anne and the Duchess of Marlborough were close friends and so it is possible, of course, that Queen Anne had given the watch to the Duchess who in turn had presented it to her daughter Lady Sunderland. However, the watch carries hallmarks for 1712-1713 and by this time Anne was expected to die but had not named a successor. Six of the twelve busts to the outside case back are an identically crowned portrait that could be Queen Anne, to the inner case there is an intriguing portrait of a young woman beneath a canopy, flanked by a lion and a unicorn, clearly alluding to a person of high rank. The Marlboroughs were prominent supporters of the Hanoverian cause. The future George I did not have a wife whilst his son, George II’s wife, Caroline Ansbach - later Queen Caroline - had already been in England for 10 years and it possible she is the subject of the six portrait busts of a young woman on the outer case and the engraved portrait to the inner case.

Although it is rare to have a watch of this size and style proven to have been owned by a woman, it is not unheard of. By coincidence, the coronet and cipher on Tompion’s repeater, no. 350 from 1709 is, without doubt, that of Mary Montagu, the Duke of Marlborough’s fourth daughter and one of Ann’s sisters.