E. S. Yates gold watch 1840s

Gilt brass half-plate fusee lever movement with gold balance-wheel and 17 jewels including fusee arbor, signed IMPROV'D DETACH'D PATENT LEVER / BY / E. S. YATES & CO. / Liverpool / 14732 . Hinged dust-cap. Gold dial with concentric engine-turning and central engraving of an architectural fantasy resembling a mosque; appliqué border of florets in four-colour gold and roman chapter-ring in pink gold; sunken subsidiary seconds dial. Gold fleur-de-lys hands. Gold consular case, deeply chased on bezels, pendant and bow in scroll and leaf patterns; back engine-turned with crisp fish-scale pattern and elaborate central rosette; numbered as movement inside each back cover and signed in outer cover G.W.C. Lunette glass. Diameter 50mm.

An early example of the half-plate calibre, which differs from the three-quarter type in that the fourth wheel has its own independent cock. The jewelled fusee arbor seems to have been a speciality of this maker (compare the later movement shown on the ‘left-handed’ page). The case, which is clearly of good-quality gold but has no hallmarks, seems likely to be American.

In general style this watch closely parallels the Morris Tobias watch, of the same period and designed for the same U.S. market. The hands are unusual, more Swiss than English in style, but in view of the exceptional condition of the original case it seems virtually certain that they are original.

The engine-turning is virtually unworn and suggests that the watch was carried only on special occasions. A complex central motif, reminiscent of the ‘roses’ used in bank-note engraving stands where an old-world watch would have displayed an escutcheon for arms.

The border is an example of the ‘four-colour’ technique developed in about 1800; each floret is separately fashioned in gold tinted with various oxides to give white, green, yellow and pink shades, the last being used also for the chapter-ring. The central image is a little difficult to explain, resembling as it does a mosque with dome and minarets; possibly it is a free rendering of the former Cathedral of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople.

Half-plate and three-quarter-plate movements first appeared in Britain in the 1830s and seem to have been regarded as liberated from the rigid conventions that governed the traditional full-plate watch. On this early example the fusee is retained, but already the plates are screwed rather than pinned. The projection at bottom left, resembling a hack-lever, is in fact the catch for the dust-cap which is (unusually) hinged to the movement.