Watches in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

In my previous post regarding Watch No. 8346 I reported that I had contacted the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague who said "unfortunately, there are no any watches with a signature of Kover in the collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague."

Since then I have had further correspondence with the Museum and they have sent me pictures of three watches that are displayed in the Museum and are similar to a Kover watch. Unfortunately the pictures "can be used for study purposes only, they can´t be published".

Descriptions provided by the Museum of the three watches follow:

Pair-case watch, 2nd quarter of the 18th century

Thomas Moore, London

sign. T. MOORE LONDON 1922

gilded base metal, enamel; mechanism: brass, steel

verge escapement, monometallic balance, Tompion´s regulation

inv. no. 45607

Pair-case watch with striking mechanism, 18th century

Cabrier, London

sign. CABRIER LONDON

embossed gold, pierced and engraved, enamel; mechanism: brass, steel

verge escapement, monometallic balance, Tompion´s regulation

inv. no. 68392

Pair-case watch, around 1750

Chr. Siruam, London

sign. CHR. SIRUAM LONDON

embossed gold, chased and engraved, pierced steel; mechanism: brass, steel

verge escapement, monometallic balance, Tompion´s regulation

inv. no. 83131

My correspondent at the Museum says "Unfortunately, I don´t have pictures of the mechanisms for you. All the watches are on display, forming part of our museum´s permanent exhibition. They are locked in a special showcase which is very uneasy to open. If we open the showcase once I will send you the pictures (in 2012 or 2013?)"

I intend to study the pictures in order to identify the similarities and differences between these watches and the Kover watches of which I have pictures. I will report my findings in a future post. I also intend to try to discover further information about the watchmakers Thomas Moore, Cabrier and Chr. Siruam, all of London.  

The picture below was kindly sent to me by Luis Sanchez Biosca, the author of the book "The Art of Religeria" together with the following information:

"Watch with gold chain of 4cm in diameter. Chr Siruam, London 1750, chain of the same era, gilded brass. Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

As I promised you sent the photograph on page 193 of the book "The Art of Watchmaking" LIBSA Publishers, which represents a clock very similar to the chain even Kover, called "Chateleine" which also is very similar to that wearing the watch on pages 89-90 Kover's book "The Machine Prodigious."
With regard to this book, I have to tell you that it is sold as is called "The Art of Religeria"".