Timepieces Collection

John Willowe (d. 1655)
Oval gilt-brass and silver cased verge watch

Movement: John Willowe, in fleet Street, fecit, 1615 - 1620

case; gilt-brass, silver

case 56.5 mm length case 33.25 mm width case 21.6 mm thickness movement 34.5 mm length movement 28.2 mm width pillar 8.45 mm height

Case: Gilt-brass case with hinged lid and integral back. The applied silver band is decorated with foliate scrolls and reclining figures. The back is engraved with a depiction of The Flight into Egypt with the inscription S.MAT.CA.2 beneath (from St. Matthew's Gospel chapter 2); the lid is engraved with The Nativity and the inscription S.LVC.CAP.2 (from St. Luke's Gospel chapter 2). Both the back and lid have bead and reel borders. Dial: Gilt-brass dial engraved with foliate scrolls and a rustic townscape in the central area. Applied silver chapter-ring with hours I-XII and star-shaped half-hours. The blued steel hand is broken. Movement: Oval gilt-brass plates with four baluster pillars. An engraved foliate border around three quarters of the back plate. Mainspring barrel with ratchet and click set-up on the back-plate, the wheel not original. Fusee now with chain; three wheel train; verge escapement; pierced foliate balance cock pinned to a stud on the back plate. Movement signed: John Willowe in fleet Street fecit John Willowe, Fleet Street, London, Free in the Blacksmiths' Company in 1617. Clockmakers' Company 1632, Master 1635, died 1655.

Percy Webster
Sotheby's, 1937

Bequeathed by J. Francis Mallett, 1947.

WA1947.191.35

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