I · The Maker/II · The Object/III · The Record/IV · Acquisition
Room I · The Maker
Neveren is recorded by Baillie as a London maker working in 1784, and the Science Museum holds a Neveren verge in a London case hallmarked that year. Watches under the name were made for the Dutch trade, which through the second half of the eighteenth century bought English-style verges in volume and had them finished to its own taste: painted dials, bridge cocks and repoussé outer cases.
The outer case, worked in repoussé
The Object
A silver pair-cased verge made for the Dutch market, signed Neveren London, with a painted pastoral scene on the enamel dial and a matching rural scene raised in repoussé on the outer case.
The dial and the outer case tell the same story twice. On the enamel, a milkmaid in a pink dress and straw hat stands with her pail and a hay rake among her farm animals. Behind them are a white cottage with a red roof, a yellow fence, a farmhouse and a church with a red spire and a cross on top, with birds over the trees. The scene is painted by hand in the centre of the dial, inside a white chapter ring of black Roman hours with the minutes numbered at every five around the outside. The hour hand has a pierced oval head, the minute hand is a plain poker, and the colour of the painting is as strong at the edge as in the middle.
The outer case answers it in silver. The back is worked in repoussé with a seated figure in a broad hat under a spreading tree, a dog at his feet, a church with a tower to one side and a cottage to the other, all held in a frame of rococo scrolls, leaves and flowers on a punched ground. The scrollwork continues round the bezel. The inner case is plain polished silver with a stirrup bow and a winding hole in the back, so the watch could be wound with the inner case shut, and the crystal over the dial is a high bull's-eye dome. The outer case is lined with a cut-down newspaper advertisement for Maple & Co of Tottenham Court Road, used as a watch paper.
Inside, the gilt plate is engraved with foliage around a balance cock of the two-footed bridge pattern, pierced and engraved to match, with blued screws and a plain brass regulator disc. The signature and number are cut in script across the plate. At 51.8mm across the outer case it sits in the hand as a full-sized watch of its day.
The watch winds and runs, and the hands set with the key from the front. Both cases close snug.
The maker's name and what is known of it are in Room I; the marks, the movement and the condition are set out in the drawers below.
Beneath the case
Open each drawer to look closer
Mark 1
VA in a lozenge, No. 10199
The case maker's punch and the case number, struck inside the inner case back.
inner case
maker's punch
Mark 2
Pendant punches
Two small punches struck into the pendant boss, worn soft with use.
pendant
punches
Mark 3
No. 46165
The movement number in an engraved script cartouche on the backplate, repeated at the plate edge beside the signature.
backplate
number
Part A
Bridge cock
Pierced and engraved balance cock of the two-footed continental bridge pattern, held by blued screws.
Part B
The backplate
Gilt full plate engraved with foliage around the signature, the numbered cartouche and a plain brass regulator disc.
Part C
In the case
The verge fusee movement hinges out of the plain inner case; the key winds through the hole in the case back.
Case
Very good
Both cases close snug. Outer case with a repoussé scene to the back and chased scrollwork to the bezel, worn soft on the high points, with traces of verdigris inside; inner case plain with light handling wear. Pendant and bow sound. No English hallmarks; VA lozenge punch and case number inside the inner back. Outer case lined with a Maple & Co newspaper advertisement used as a watch paper.
Dial
Very good
Painted scene intact with strong colour. A small loss at the rim between 45 and 50, and light speckling to the white.
Movement
Excellent
Gilt full plate verge fusee with bridge cock, fusee chain intact. Winds, sets and runs.
Crystal
Excellent
High bull's-eye dome, clear.
Crown
None fitted, key-wind by original design.
51.8
This watch
25.75
€2 coin
A €2 coin is 25.75 mm. This case is more than two and a half times its area.
Room III · The Record
The backplate, signed Neverenn London
Signed Neverenn London, No. 46165, inner case No. 10199.
The backplate carries the signature in script with the number in a cartouche. Inside the inner case back are a maker's punch, VA in a lozenge, and the case number 10199; there are no English assay marks, which is how the watch declares its continental origin. The name matches Baillie's entry for D.B.D. Neveren, London, 1784, and the Science Museum's example in a London case of the same year. The painted scene dial with its plain minute ring and Arabic five-minute figures is the later fashion, after the arcaded rings of mid-century, and places the watch at c.1785-1800.
- Maker
- Neveren, London
- Model
- Dutch-market pair-cased verge, painted enamel scene dial
- Movement number
- 46165
- Case number
- 10199
- Date
- C.1785-1800
- Origin
- Continental, made for the Dutch market, signed London
- Movement
- Gilt full plate verge fusee, bridge cock, key-wind and key-set
- Case
- Silver pair case, outer case with repoussé pastoral scene to the back and chased scroll bezel, plain inner case with winding hole
- Hallmarks
- None English; maker's punch VA in a lozenge inside the inner case back
- Diameter
- 51.8mm
- Dial
- White enamel, polychrome painted pastoral scene, black Roman numerals, Arabic five-minute track
- Hands
- Pierced-oval hour hand and poker minute hand
- Crystal
- Bull's-eye
- Complications
- None
- Condition
- Very Good, winds, sets and runs
The Estate Collection
Room IV · Acquisition
€750
We’d love to discuss our passion for this piece with you.
Neveren, London
€750
Enquiry
Neveren, painted dial verge
×