page_title: James Ivory (watchmaker)
section_title: Output
hierarchical_section_title: James Ivory (watchmaker) / Output
caption_attribution_description: English: James Ivory pocket watch #109
context_page_description: James Ivory was a Scottish watchmaker, clockmaker, and engraver. He was briefly followed by his son Thomas Ivory.
context_section_description: Based upon engraved serial numbers on his pocket watch movements from 1762 through 1768, he produced somewhere between only 12 to 15 a year during that time. Between 1770 and 1772 that number increased to an average of 53. By comparison, others were putting out hundreds, sometimes thousands, of movements per year from their workshops. This just goes to show that much of the work was in fact done by him personally rather than with the help of several apprentices like many other makers of the time. Being an engraver himself, he created most if not all of the work on his movements vs. sourcing parts from other suppliers as was common practice by others. By and large, most other makers whose signatures were engraved on their movements, may not even have touched it themselves at all as parts came from other sources and apprentices performed most of the remaining assembly. Ivory's only known apprentice was his son Thomas at only the last few years of his life.
  His works of craftsmanship are highly sought after by collectors, most especially his first works from the early 1760s. The extensively intricate engravings and ornamentation on his movements are very finely detailed and elegant in design. During the time of his career, most other watchmakers were reducing the amount of aesthetic detailing put into the decorations and engravings on their movements. Most of this was due in part to the introduction of dust covers being used on pocket watch movements in the late 18th century. This also coincided with the adoption of duplex escapements in the UK which had been patented in 1782 and were in wide use by 1790. Pocket watch movements which utilized dust covers and newer types of escapements simply lacked the same artistic adornment for which the movements of the prior 100 years had become so well known and sought after. The works of James Ivory carried on the grand style of this tradition up until the end of his life in 1793.
caption: James Ivory pocket watch #109
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