Clocktime Edward East's Miniature Rock Crystal Watch c1635, 02 History
Channel: Dr John C Taylor
Date: 2024-04-09

Edward East – Miniature rock crystal-cased watch with detailed engraved dial.

Join Dr John C Taylor OBE from the Clocktime digital museum as he explores the history of the Edward East Miniature Rock Crystal Watch, circa 1635.

Discover more about early and antique clocks and watches... 

https://clocktime.co.uk/artefacts/east-miniature-rock-crystal-watch


Terence Camerer Cuss estimates the watch was made in about 1635. It is tempting to speculate that a watch of this quality and rarity was made for the Catholic Queen, Henrietta Maria of England, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on the 13th of June 1625. I particularly like this idea as the Queen and I share the same birthday, be it all that she was born 327 years before me on the 25th of November 1609. Sadly, I think this is a very wild speculation as King Charles was already very short of cash to purchase such an expensive bobble. A few years previously, scrabbling for cash in 1631, King Charles had received a mere £61 from the clockmakers of London for the grant of a full livery company the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and on the 4th of August 1635, King Charles issued the second very controversial writ for ship money, extending the payments to include towns in land from the sea. 

Edward East, who signed the watch, was born in 1602 in South Hill in Bedfordshire and was baptized on the 22nd of August. He's apprenticed in 1618 to Richard Rogers of the Goldsmiths' Company in London until 1626 and the next year, on the 8th of August 1627, he married Anne with the approval of her father Edmund Bull. A year later, East was promoted as overseer of the Bull family workshop in Ram Alley, one of the liberties outside the control of the Guild Hall. Was this little watch created there with Huguenot workers, who were escaping Catholic persecution from Continental Europe? Were these the very workers in Ram Alley liberty that the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers were trying to exclude from undercutting the London- trained clockmakers in both skills and wages by their establishment of London Guild. 

Against East's wishes, he was made one of the first assistants on the formation of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers whose charter was granted by Charles I on the 22nd of August 1631. East appears to have been, well had an ambivalent relationship with the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. He retained his links with the Goldsmiths' Company whilst his father-in-law maintained his links with the Blacksmiths' Company. Thus, through family connections, East had links with three London guilds, giving more networking potential particularly with apprentices and the scope to slip between the guilds system restrictions. 

This was not a time of royal patronage. A civil war was brewing between the King and Parliament. It is probable that we shall never know by whom this watch was commissioned or what they had to pay for such a unique little work of art. Yet its charm, skill of execution and beauty of a miniature time piece does not require a royal patron to establish its position in the pantheon of perfection. This tiny watch speaks for itself. It's exceptional and unique.