Context (Amendments / updates)
Contrary to the accession register entry and display board label, this watch was made in Switzerland, not France. 'Girardier l’Ainé' is the signature of Charles A. Girardier (1759-1839), a Master Watchmaker operating in Geneva, where the descendent firm of watch manufacturers 'Charles Girardier' are still based today (Charles Girardier 2018). As such, the Place field has been filled as 'Europe; Switzerland; Geneva'.
Event Date
Author: David Kay

Description (Inscription)
The back of the watch mechanism is engraved 'No 13009' and 'Gerardier l’ainé'. The white china dial on the front is marked with the hours from 1-12 and inscribed 'Gerardier L’AINE´'.
Event Date
Author: David Kay

Context (Display)
The object was found disassembled and mounted on a wooden display board, with the watch mechanism pushed through the board and the back surmounted by a circular glass cover. A handwritten label affixed to the back of the board reads: 'FRENCH. Watch in shagreen case, decorated with silver stud-work by GIRARDIER, L'AINE´, c.1780. The face bears an enamel of the crucifixion. The Baroness Anatole von Hügel. [A.1906.286.].' Also written in pencil on the back of the board: 'Watch in shagreen case with silver studs - French. c 1780. Just at this time small enamels with subjects such as this one [illegible] fashionable on both French and English watch-dials. A.1906.286. The Baroness A von Hügel, 1906.'
Event Date
Author: David Kay

Description (Physical description)
Accession register entry: 'A watch by Girardier, L’Ainé, in open-faced shagreen case, finely decorated in silver stud-work, c. 1780. The flat, chased, silver face bears a small, white-enamelled hour dial below a round medallion, and an oval medallion in gold repoussé on either face side, the upper one covering an enamel of the crucifixion.'
Event Date 1906
Author: David Kay

Context (References)
cf: Charles Girardier (2018) 'Charles Antoine Girardier' Charles Girardier haute horlogerie. https://charles-girardier.com/charles-a-girardier/ (last accessed: 26/03/2019)
Event Date 2018
Author: David Kay

Context (Found together / assemblage)
Found in a cardboard box of six watches/watch parts and cases (1883.750, 1902.14.1, 1906.286.1-3, 1906.287.1-2, 1915.167.1-2, TEMP.00865), plus the display board for 1906.133 (object missing).
Event Date 2019
Author: David Kay

Description (Physical description)
Pocket watch, including movement with ceramic dial and concealed enamel crucifixion scene [1], and shagreen and silver case [2-3]. The movement is of a front-winding verge fusee type, the rear of which is party covered by an elaborately scrolled openwork backplate, and engraved 'No 13009' and 'Gerardier l’ainé'. The chased silver front of the movement features a round, ormolu repoussé medallion and two flanking oval medallions decorated with cherubs, and a small, circular, white china dial marked with the hours from 1-12, with a centrally mounted pair of hour/minute hands and inscribed 'Gerardier L’AINE´'. The central round medallion is hinged, and when opened via a catch on the side reveals an enamel painting of Christ crucified against a background of trees, buildings and clouds. The case is now in two pieces, the hinge having broken, consisting of a back cover (2) and front bevel (3). Both pieces are made of brass covered with shagreen leather and studded with small silver pins and roundels in geometric patterns. The front bevel is also broken across its width in one place.
Event Date 26/3/2019
Author: David Kay

Context (Analysis)
I should note that I do not believe that this watch movement and case originally belong together. For one, the case is too large to actually hold the mechanism securely within in. Moreover, there is a notch on the side of the back cover of the case, for either a protruding crown or winding key, neither of which feature on the corresponding side of the mechanism. How the two objects came to be associated is unknown.
Event Date 28/3/2019
Author: David Kay

Description (Physical description)
Pocket watch, including movement with ceramic dial and concealed enamel crucifixion scene. This pocket watch was gifted to the museum with a shagreen and silver case [2-3], but there is uncertainty as to whether the case and watch movement originally belonged together.
Event Date 9/6/2022
Author: Lizzy Peneycad