Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu

A George III gold diamond and enamel pair cased pocket watch, by John Holmes, Strand, London, with correspondent key and fob seal/scent bottle, the watch with white enamel dial, black Arabic numerals and rose-cut diamond set scrolled hands, full plate verge fusee movement with cylindrical columns, signed and numbered ‘6485’, the inner case with inscription to interior ‘Lady Dowr Powerscourt to her Granddaughter D Style’, the bezel decorated with a band of blue guilloché enamel with gold scroll detail, between white enamel borders, the reverse similarly decorated with blue guilloché enamel ground, to a central navette-shaped glazed ivory memorial panel painted en grisaille to depict a grieving lady casting ashes across a tomb inscribed ‘A l’amitie et a la reconnoissance’, within a surround of old mine-cut diamonds, the crown inset with an old brilliant-cut diamond, the outer case open to the front and glazed verso, together with a watch key and fob seal/scent bottle similarly decorated in blue and white enamel, the fob seal modelled as an urn, with screw down lid, the base inset with a bloodstone intaglio carved with the profile of a classical youth, watch diameter 47.5mm. £2200-3000

The phrase ’A l’amitie et a la reconnoissance’ translates as ‘to friendship and gratitude’.

‘Lady Dowager Powerscourt’ (or Dorothy Beresford née Rowley) was the second wife of Richard Wingfield (1697-1751), the 1st Viscount Powerscourt. They were married in London on 13th April 1727. Lady Powerscourt died a few years after her husband in 1785, at the age of 77. Their one surviving daughter, Isabella, married Sir Charles Style, 5th Baronet, of Wateringbury Place, Kent, on 7th March 1770. Their daughter, Dorothy, was married to John Larking, Esquire, of Clare House, East Malling, Kent to whom the dedication within this watch probably relates.

Portrait of Dorothy Style, oil on canvas, English School, painted circa 1790. Sold at Aucktionhaus Stahl, Hamburg 28th February 2015.

See: The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: Mortimer-Percy Volume, by the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, published London 1911.
See: Complete Peerage by George Edward Cokayne
See: Burke’s Peerage by Bernard Burke

Please note ivory is covered by CITES legislation and may be subject to trade and import/export restrictions.