Lot 47

Joseph Foster, London, Movement No. 40, 52 mm, 127 g, circa 1695
An early and rare pair-cased verge clock watch with day and night indicator
Case: outer case - brass, silver, tortoiseshell. Inner case - silver. Dial: silver, Champlevé. Movm.: full plate movement, keywind, chain/fusee, three-arm steel balance.
The silver Champlevé dial has retrograde Roman hours for night and day. In the upper half of the centre is a semi-circular opening showing the phases of the sun on an engraved gold sun disc or the moon phases on an engraved silver moon and inlaid stars on a blued disc, which revolves once every 24 hours. When the sun disappears on the right side of the display, the moon appears on the left. The lower half of the dial is decorated with chased flower scrolls and fantasy birds and a signature cartouche.
The outer case is covered with tortoiseshell and finely ornamented with inlaid silver flowers, scrolls and birds.
Joseph Foster is recorded in G.H. Baillie’s "Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World" as apprenticed in 1684, gaining his freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in 1691 and working from Exchange Alley, London until 1707.