Lot 536

Joshua Allsop, East Smithfield, London, Movement No. 827, 58 mm, 150 g, circa 1714
A large pair-cased verge pocket watch
Case: outer case - 22k gold, polished, large lateral hinge. Inner case - 22k gold, case maker's punch mark "JA". Dial: gold, Champlevé, inlaid radial Roman numerals, signed, blued steel "Poker & Beetle" hands. Movm.: fine full plate movement, keywind, firegilt, applied florally engraved ornaments, signed, chain/fusee, Egyptian movement pillars, three-arm steel balance, very finely engraved pierced balance cock with cherub face.
Joshua Allsop's birth date is unknown but he died in 1724. He did his apprenticeship in Northhamptonshire and married Martha Watts at St. Marylebone's Church in London in 1686. He is first mentioned as a clockmaker and brother in the Clockmakers’ Company in 1689 and took his first apprentice in 1693.
Not much is known about Joshua Allsop’s life except that he had an oustanding sense of quality - that much is obvious from the few clocks and pocket watches by Allsop that have survived. He was certainly in no way inferior to the grand and famous London makers of his time.