91st Auction
2015/5/16
Lot 510
Robert Grinkin, London, 34 x 63 mm, 84 g, circa 1620
A fine, one-handed, octagonal Renaissance pre-balance spring pendant watch
Case: silver and firegilt brass, lavishly hand engravings depicting the Baptism of Jesus on the back side and Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane on the front. The sides decorated with angel's heads, dogs and flower tendrils. Dial: brass, firegilt, engravings of flowers and dogs, silver chapter ring with radial Roman numerals, the centre with an engraved couple wearing contemporary clothes, single blued steel hand. Movm.: octagonal-shaped full plate movement, firegilt, signed, gut/fusee, verge escapement, ratchet wheel set up with blued steel spring, two-arm iron balance without spring, florally engraved pierced balance cock.
Robert Grinkin the Elder
He was a very prosperous Blacksmiths' Company member and London watchmaker. He was free of the Blacksmiths' Company in 1609, taking Sampson Shelton of Shepshed as apprentice in 1613. In 1622 he was one of a group of watchmakers who asked King James I to allow them to form a company of clockmakers, aimed at keeping foreign competitors out of London. The king did not agree to their request, and it was not until 1631 that the Clockmakers’ Company was founded. He died in 1626, and in which household his two sons, Edmund and Robert junior (both aged about 28) continued the trade, also Blacksmiths' Company members.
Today many of his works are in important collections and museums, e.g. The Frick Collection, the British Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Source: http://www.brianloomes.com/collecting/benjaminhill/index.html, as of 02/02/2012.
Octagonal-shaped watches
The oval shape was the dominant watch form in the mid-sixteenth century. By the end of the century other geometrically shaped watches - square, hexagonal, trapezoidal, and circular - became fashionable. Octagonal-shaped watches, for example, began to appear around 1575. Although most circular and octagonal watches have circular movements, the movement on this watch is octagonal-shaped.
A fine, one-handed, octagonal Renaissance pre-balance spring pendant watch
Case: silver and firegilt brass, lavishly hand engravings depicting the Baptism of Jesus on the back side and Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane on the front. The sides decorated with angel's heads, dogs and flower tendrils. Dial: brass, firegilt, engravings of flowers and dogs, silver chapter ring with radial Roman numerals, the centre with an engraved couple wearing contemporary clothes, single blued steel hand. Movm.: octagonal-shaped full plate movement, firegilt, signed, gut/fusee, verge escapement, ratchet wheel set up with blued steel spring, two-arm iron balance without spring, florally engraved pierced balance cock.
Robert Grinkin the Elder
He was a very prosperous Blacksmiths' Company member and London watchmaker. He was free of the Blacksmiths' Company in 1609, taking Sampson Shelton of Shepshed as apprentice in 1613. In 1622 he was one of a group of watchmakers who asked King James I to allow them to form a company of clockmakers, aimed at keeping foreign competitors out of London. The king did not agree to their request, and it was not until 1631 that the Clockmakers’ Company was founded. He died in 1626, and in which household his two sons, Edmund and Robert junior (both aged about 28) continued the trade, also Blacksmiths' Company members.
Today many of his works are in important collections and museums, e.g. The Frick Collection, the British Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Source: http://www.brianloomes.com/collecting/benjaminhill/index.html, as of 02/02/2012.
Octagonal-shaped watches
The oval shape was the dominant watch form in the mid-sixteenth century. By the end of the century other geometrically shaped watches - square, hexagonal, trapezoidal, and circular - became fashionable. Octagonal-shaped watches, for example, began to appear around 1575. Although most circular and octagonal watches have circular movements, the movement on this watch is octagonal-shaped.
Sold
estimated
36.000—40.000 €
Price realized
44.700 €