Anonymous

• plain white enamel interior • white enamel, conjoined moveable hands • the case back with polychrome  enamel scene depicting a gentleman and a lady in a landscape, bezel decorated with polychrome enamel flowers

The scene to the case back shows a gentleman and lady in period dress within a rural landscape. She holds a posy of flowers and he a large money bag – these attributes alluding to the lady’s beauty and the gentleman’s wealth. In the distance is a house, no doubt intended to represent the gentleman’s residence.

These Bilston enamel cases in the form of watches were almost certainly designed for ornamental display. The word ‘toy’ in this context denotes a novelty item, rather than taking its modern meaning as an object for children to play with. It was fashionable in the eighteenth century to display watches and other small objects in vitrines and showcases and toy watches would have been a less expensive yet still decorative alternative. Although unusual, Bilston enamel was also used to decorate ‘real’ watch cases and examples of this work are illustrated in Cedric Jagger, The Artistry of the English Watch, 1988, col. pl. 14, p. 126.