I am familiar with the individual you mentioned in your last post, and suffice it to say that dropping his name lends your argument no extra credibility. You will also notice that the figure caption you show above reads, "Circa 1870 - 1880s." This difference in period is significant because, among other reasons, double sunk dials, as is the one shown in the caption, were extremely rare on American watches pre-1865, and even more so on foreign watches. As my opening post points out:
"Watch Dials and Hands: Authentic watch dials of the CW period were oven fired, hand painted ceramic with copper backings. They were nearly all either flat, or "single sunk," meaning that the seconds bit was a separate disk that was cemented slightly below the plane of the main dial. (The only double sunk dials of the period appear on a small number of the highest grade Waltham Model 1859 movements, as per the discussion below.) ..."
I know of no knowledgeable horologist, and I know many, who would disagree with the above statement. Since you questioned my expertise, allow me to say in my defense that I have walked countless showrooms and perused innumerable auction catalogs filled with watches from the Civil War period, I have written a well-received book and several research articles on watches of that general period, and I have curated two significant exhibits and chaired two NAWCC National Seminars on the general subject. I also received the NAWCC's James W. Gibbs Award (one of only twenty of which have been awarded in thirty years) for outstanding literary contributions to horology. Dan who?
What the great majority of "art collectors," even those who may collect art with Civil War themes, knows about Civil War pocket watches is about what the general public knows about Civil War pocket watches, which is to say they know almost nothing. If you can show me one reverse painted dial watch with a credible CW provenance, I might revise my opinion.
As for the source of the image and caption you posted, here is the first of several reviews of that book listed on Amazon.com:
"Here's an example of a book that should never have been produced. The author is obviously misinformed and quite frankly, ignorant, regarding watches. The book is riddled with incorrect information regarding watch descriptions, including blatantly wrong jewel counts, movement descriptions, and the repetitious "very fine and rare", "fine and lovely", "very fine and very rare", ad nauseum. The author constantly includes "micrometric regulator" in descriptions of pocket watches, that have NO micrometric regulators! The book is attractive, and has some excellent photographs, but, at best, this is a book that needed an author with some watch "smarts"."
23 people found that review helpful.