I was given this today

[Stevenr]

I was given this today by my Grandfather,apparently it belonged to his Grandfather so clearly quite an old thing.I've wound it up and seems to be working ok and keeping time so far.Needs a good clean but i'll get on to that tomorrow.


Not sure where my thread title's gone,need some help identifying it if possible at all please.

Edited by Stevenr on Saturday 25th October 20:03

Edited by Stevenr on Saturday 25th October 20:06

[Stevenr]

[Stevenr]

[Stevenr]

[Don1]

Very nice!

[ellroy]

May be wrong, but the lion is an English Silver hallmark, probably an idea to look at Hallmarks on line with a magnifying glass to give you an idea of case age and where it came from?

[Stevenr]

I've done a fair bit of searching around since the OP and it appears to be a John Forrest made item,I think I'll maybe clean it up a bit and see about getting it checked out properly.

Been a long time in the family so something nice to hold onto to pass on in the future if nothing else.

[HarryW]

The lion means silver the shield is Chester, P is the date, can't match it fully but could be 1898

Have a look here http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilverhallma...

[Stevenr]

HarryW said:

The lion means silver the shield is Chester, P is the date, can't match it fully but could be 1898

Have a look here http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilverhallma...

Thank you,some interesting reading there,I'll update this once I have a proper look through that link and match it all up.

[R6VED]

Wow, that is a thing of beauty.

[Kapenta]

Whatever you do, please don't "clean" it? Establish the age, marks and make and then leave it. It's the patina that makes it special.

[AlexC1981]

Can we see a photo of the movement please? I bet it's nicely decorated.

[The Nur]

Lovely looking thing.

[mikeveal]

HarryW said:

The lion means silver the shield is Chester, P is the date, can't match it fully but could be 1898

Have a look here http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilverhallma...

Agree. 1898.
http://www.925-1000.com/dlc_chester.html
Looks about right for the watch. Movement pictures please.

[Stevenr]

I'll get some more photos later today.

1898 would tie in with the original owner as he died in 1939 although there's a W.H marking too in a rectangle.I can't seem to find a mark exactly like it but the closest I could see dated it earlier,everything else points to 1898 though so i'm going with that at the moment.

[Stevenr]

I'll get some more photos later today.

1898 would tie in with the original owner as he died in 1939 although there's a W.H marking too in a rectangle.I can't seem to find a mark exactly like it but the closest I could see dated it earlier,everything else points to 1898 though so i'm going with that at the moment.

[DoubleSix]

Kapenta said:

Whatever you do, please don't "clean" it? Establish the age, marks and make and then leave it. It's the patina that makes it special.

As above, don't all the experts on Antiques Roadshow etc always say "ah, such a shame you've cleaned it as it is now ruined and would have been worth so much more to collector if you hadn't fked it up"

[Stevenr]

Not sure if it comes apart easily or not? This is about as far as I trust myself with it before i do any damage,markings are a bit clearer here too.

[RobCh]

Given the date of the silver, this may be of interest. http://www.vintagetimepieces.co.uk/john-forrest/

[Stevenr]

I read a little bit about that on another site but there's more information there thank you.

Seems that it's a John Forrest watch but not really then? I wonder how much of an effect that has on value etc if any given the age