International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

Soine Antique IVatches


PECTORAL CROSS WATCH, XVIII CENTURY
PROBABLY BELONGED TO CARDINAL ANTOINELLI

COLLECTION OE THOMAS R. PROCTOR
UTICA, N. Y.

had a pocket watch with a fob that has come down
to this day.
It was not the mere size of the watches that oper-
ated to delay the Puritan fashion. It is a common
notion that the modern watch has been evolved,
as it were, from the “grandfather clock,” shrinking
inch by inch to its present reduction. But very
small instruments were contrived soon after watch-
making had gained a foothold. When once the
principleof the mainspring had been come upon,the
problem that puzzled the clock-maker was how to
retard the rate of the unwinding so as to avoid
a steady lessening of the force. Various forms of
a frictional brake, and the fusee devices for taking
the resistance by a cord coming from a conical
grooved spool that gave the spring a leverage that
grew better as its power grew less—these experi-
ments in the movement were what troubled the
maker and kept each at work perfecting his own
plans. But the actual size of the watch was in no
way dependent upon such considerations. In some
instances watches were made smaller than can be
readily found to-day. The distinguishing trait in
point of size of the older watch is perhaps its thick-
ness, and this it may not be too much to say was
considerably due to the fact that no great effort
was made toward thinness. When a watch was
small it usually took the form of an Ornament, de-
signed often on the lines of some natural object.

Some remarkable small movements were made
for the pectoral cross watches. An interestingly
decorated specimen will be noted herewith from the


GOLD ENAMEL REPEATER OE EXTRAORDINARY SIZE
SIGNED: ILBERY, LONDON (ABOUT 1790)
FROM THE MARFELS COLLECTION, BERLIN

LIII