International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

Some Antique IVatdies



OME ANTIQUE
WATCHES AND
THEIR CASES

LOUIS XVI GOLD RING
WATCH, SET WITH
DIAMONDS

The American
contribution to the craft of
watchmaking was the de-
vice of interchangeable
parts. This, of course,
means that the parts must
be turned out one exactly like another, and this
in turn spells machinery. We are accustomed to
limit the word craft to the handicrafts, in which
sense the American contribution was to put
an end to the craft by substituting the manufac-
ture. And though the purist in words might think
the populär choice curious, in that our machines
display by far the greatest power and ingenuity, and
the actual meaning of manufacture is precisely the
handwork that we exclude from its scope,these are,
nevertheless, the facts of the Situation, however left-
handedly we may express them. When about 1850
a Bostonian hit upon the idea of making watches
with the precision and mechanical impartiality with
which the Government mints coin, watches were
then and there fated to encompass the earth, as the
Plagues spread over the face of Egypt, to become
as plentiful as huckleberries and about as individual
as cannon balls. And when the cannon balls began
to fly in the sixties, and made it important to keep
track of time cheaply and readily here and there

STRIKING AND ALARM TRAVELLING WATCH
BY JOSEPH MARTINEAU, SR., LONDON, 1750
COLLECTION OF FREDERICK T. PROCTOR, UTICA,

SILVER ALARM WATCH
BY ESTIENNE HUBERT, 1555-1620
COLLECTION HENRY M. NEY, UTICA, N. Y.

and everywhere in the field, a business that had
already failed sprang to success with a flourish.
Before those days the ability of the American to
make watches was under suspicion and our people
bought from overseas. In Europe it seemed to be
the fashion of the makers each to adopt and cling
to a pattern peculiar, so far as possible, to himself,
the very condition that our ingenious Dennison
sought to correct out of existence. So it happens
that the only watches of an antiquarian interest
are of foreign make, and date back
considerably. Naturally, too, famous
collections are of longer Standing and
repute in Europe. Some of the speci-
mens contained in the well-known
collection of Evan Roberts, of London,
will be remembered as on view at the
Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Carl Marfels has a remarkable, but
not sogenerally appreciated a collection
in Berlin, from which group, reduced
by a rigid and discriminating selection
to about one hundred specimens, we
take pleasure in presenting herewith a
number of photographs. In this coun-
try a similar enthusiasm has achieved
noteworthy results. In this city such
collections as those made by Mr. G. P.
Morosini and Mrs. George A. Hearn
are deservedly celebrated. Interesting
work is also being done in Utica, N. Y.,
by a group of collectors. Of these men,
N. y. three in number, Mr. Frederick T.


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