Pocket Watches 19th & 20th Century by Alan Shenton, Antique Collectors Club, 1995.

ISBN 1 85149 211 8

A useful but somewhat frustrating book with quite a bit of interesting information, if you can find it. Unfortunately it appears to be more of a "coffee table" book rather than a reference work, heavy on pictures and a bit too light on information.

My first impression was of a high quality, informative tome. Like other similar books (such as Meis "Pocket Watches - From the Pendant Watch to the Tourbillon") it contains many high quality photographs with brief descriptions of the watches. Shenton has ordered his collection by type: verge, English lever, Swiss (and American) lever, pin lever, etc., and inserted informative notes.

It soon becomes clear that the book should have been subtitled "as sold in England". This is not a detraction (many other books concentrate on watches of a particular country), but it needs to be remembered.

On reading more carefully I began to discover problems. How many times have you remembered reading about something and forgotten where? How easy has it been to find this information? I vividly recall trying to find a description of how to make and use tin laps; I thought it was in a paperback, but .... After many days and searching all the books I could think of I found it; in "Staking Sets and How to use them"! An invaluable little book, but oh how I wish there could have been a simpler way to find what I wanted!

And a catalogue of watches? Well, Meis sets a very good standard to judge others by, and Shenton's book is not as good. For example, the Swiss levers appear in fairly random order; not by date and not alphabetically by signature. And similar watches appear in disparate places (such as the chronographs of Plates 98 (English levers) and 31 (Chronographs); unfortunately the plates are not numbered continuously and must be referred to by chapter.

For me, such a book should be a convenient tool for comparing watches, either one I have with examples cited in books or several in books, to see trends in style and design. Not only is Shenton's book difficult to use, but I feel the number of watches illustrated could have been reduced. There are too many nearly identical photographs with nearly identical descriptions to be useful.

Which leads me to think that if there had been fewer pictures there might have been more and better text. On the whole, the descriptions of watches are good and the additional notes and reproduced ephemera are interesting and useful. But their use is badly compromised in three ways:

1. The descriptions are often too brief.

2. There is no bibliography. There are many references scattered throughout the book, but no convenient means to access them.

3. The index only lists names with no references to features and types.

Here are a few examples of what I mean:

1. There is not one mention of John Wycherley! As he was responsible for thousands of post 1870 watches (and I am sure at least some of the examples shown would have had "JW" on the dial plate, the omission is odd.

2. Lots of watches are undated (not even a circa estimate) so it is impossible to use the book to determine design trends. (The "Billodes" on page 181 is a nice example; it appears to have 25 jewels but the count is not given either). Also, there don't seem to be any Swiss lever watches before c1880. Were there none in England before then? Or is the book really just a compilation of watches *with English company names* on them?

3. Swiss lever Plate 25, Longines. I am sure Alan is right, but there is simply no explanation of how he knows it is a Longines movement. Is it from invisible inscriptions or some history of Benson's that should be referenced?

4. No-one I have read has ever explained Massey levers! Cammerer-Cuss, "Antique Watches", tried (quite well) but Shenton points me to (almost) inaccessible patents. As a collector it is important to know what I am looking at and Shenton has missed a golden opportunity to help people.

5. To find anything (like the interesting examples of odd stem wind systems and cases) requires searching the whole book; not a pleasant task. And having found something interesting there is little direct information or references to follow up the snippet.

Shenton begins his book with "... it is essential to acquire a sound background knowledge." Although I am sure I will find the book useful and I am happy to have purchased a copy, I don't think it helps enough in this way.

Richard Watkins: Hobart, Australia email: richard@calvados.apana.org.au

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