Lot 508

William Threlkeld, London, Movement No. 233, 47 mm, 90 g, circa 1740
A decorative verge pocket watch with "repoussé" decoration "Penelope and the Suitors" with matching chatelaine
Case: copper, firegilt, the back cover with chased decoration in high relief, decorated with engraved and chased volutes and scrollwork, turnable pendant, large lateral hinge. Matching gilt chatelaine with "repoussé" decoration, length 130 mm. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, pierced scotties hands. Movm.: fine full plate movement, keywind, firegilt, signed, applied, florally engraved and pierced silver ornaments, chain/fusee, Egyptian movement pillars, three-arm steel balance, fine florally engraved, pierced balance cock with mascaron.
Penelope
Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus and daughter of Icarius and his wife Periboea. She only has one son by Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War. She waits twenty years for the final return of her husband, during which she has a hard time snubbing marriage proposals from odious suitors.
On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful serving women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope, as of 07/15/2011.

Sold