Lot 515

Attributed to John Bushman, London, 52 mm, 119 g, circa 1720
An important gold Repoussé verge pocket watch: "Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden" with a blued snake automaton
Case: 22K gold, polished, a glazed aperture on the back reveals a gold chased and engraved repousse scene, case maker's punch mark "IB" (John Bushman?), gilt movement protection cap, large lateral hinge. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, blued "Poker & Beetle" hands. Movm.: full plate movement, firegilt, chain/fusee, baluster shaped movement pillars, three-arm brass balance, applied gold disc with Repoussé scene depicting Eve offering Adam the apple in the Garden of Eden, a snake circles the scene as the watch runs.
John Bushman
John Bushman (also Buschman or Buschmann) was born 1661 in Augsburg, Germany. In 1690 he got married as Johannes Busshman to 23 year old Mary Wyatt at Christ Church, London. In 1692 he became a Brother of the Clockmakers Company and was made an Assistant in 1720. Bushman presumably worked until 1725. The book "Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen Holland und Engelland" (Curious travels through Lower Saxony, Holland and England, first published in 1753) by Zaccharias Konrad Uffenbach mentions him as a watchmaker just as good as Daniel Quare or Thomas Tompion: "He is well and truly a humble, polite and goodly man who still speaks good German and never cheats his customers!" He is known to have created several clocks with serpent automatons.