WILLIAM III SILVER CASED VERGE POCKET WATCH

A WILLIAM III SILVER CASED VERGE POCKET WATCHROBERT PLAYER, LONDON, CIRCA 1695The gilt full-plate single fusee movement with four Egyptian pillars with scroll-pierced galleries pinned through the backplate, conforming pierced stop-iron block and verge escapement regulated by sprung three-arm steel balance with Tompion type regulation, the backplate with fine Ho-Ho bird inhabited symmetrical foliate scroll engraved balance cock with part herringbone bordered canted rim and female mask at the junction of conforming pierced wedge-shaped foot, flanked by silvered regulation disc set within applied scroll infill opposing signature Rob: Player, London, the later circular white enamel Roman numeral dial with Arabic five minutes beyond the dot minute track and sculpted steel beetle and poker hands, the case applied with suspension post and bow at twelve o'clock, shuttered winding hole to rear and moulded collars to circumference, unmarked.The pillar plate 4.2cm (1.625ins diameter); the case 5.3cm (2.125ins) diameter.Provenance:The Michael Finnemore Collection of Fine Clocks, Barometers, Scientific Instruments and Mechanical Music.A Robert Player is recorded in Baillie, G.H.

Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World as a clock case maker working in London 1678-92; his son of the same name was apprenticed in 1691 and worked until 1742. As catalogued the enamel dial is later, has a crescent-shaped edge crack between the XI and XII numerals and a very light hairline through V. The case is intact but shoes signs of wear and overall moderate denting/distortion. The suspension post has been re-secured with solder and the pin-hole movement latch release is probably a later modification (from when dial was replaced).