Robert Grinkin

• gilt oval full plate movement with engraved border, verge escapement, decoratively pierced and engraved pinned-on floral balance cock and foot, flat steel balance, ratchet and click set-up, fusee and gut line, baluster pillars • gilt metal dial with decoratively engraved floral border, a cherub above 12 o'clock flanked by a pair of dolphins and birds, the centre with engraved townscape scene, applied silver chapter ring of later date (possibly late 17th century) and with Roman numerals and half hour markers, double-ended blued steel floriated hand • the case front and back with gilt metal covers, engraved borders, the back with winding shutter and centred with an engraved flower, the inside of the front cover with engraved wreath, silver band engraved with flowers, acanthus leaves and stems • movement signed Ro. Grinkin

T.A. & T.P., The Camerer Cuss book of Antique Watches, 1976, pl. 11

Terence Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1970, p. 38, pl. 13

Cecil Clutton & George Daniels, Watches, 1971, pl. 68 a-b

Robert Grinkin, both father and son, were members of the Blacksmiths’ Company; Robert Senior was made Master of that Company in 1609 and was later one of the original petitioners for a Clockmakers’ Company in 1622, he died in 1626. Robert Junior was made a Free Brother of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1632, Warden from 1640 and Master of the Clockmakers’ in 1648 and again in 1654. Between 1645 and 1658, his house was in Fleet Street and during his period as Master, the Clockmakers’ Company Courts were held there. Robert Junior died in 1661, See Brian Loomes, The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, 1981, pp. 269-270. Dating to circa 1625, it is likely that the present watch was made by Robert Grinkin Junior. Examples of the Grinkins' work can be found in the British Museum, London; National Museum, Munich; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the National Museum Copenhagen. Further work was also found in the Dennison and Webster Collections. See Baillie, G.H., Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, Third edition, 1951.

An octagonal watch by Robert Grinkin was sold at Sotheby's Geneva, 13th November 2007, lot 70.

Another watch by Robert Grinkin was sold in the Percy Webster Collection - Sotheby & Co., London, 19th October 1954, lot 144.