Here is a nice example of a Peoria, 18s, HC, anit-magnetic watch in a beautiful box-end case. What I know about Peoria watches I have read about in this forum and in Shugart's book. Several pictures to follow....
Mike

Nice....strike that..... mint dial on this Peoria. Picture with bezel off.

Close-up of private dial label...

And now the case. First one side, and...

.....now the other side.

Close up of the pastoral engraving on the cover. Seems like a European scene given the building architecture. Italian maybe? Does this suggest the case was made in Europe? What are those structures in the foreground?

Here is a picture of the only case marks on any of the covers. It looks like a bit of a bad strike (not clear) to me. Help! I would like to know if this is a gold, or a gold-filled mark. Thanks for looking.
Mike

Mike

Nice watch.

Any chance of a real close up of the mark on the case to try to figure out what it is?

By the was John C. Woelfle was born in Jan. 1845 in Germany, in the 1900 census for Peoria he is living with his father-in-law August Hesler, & John's wife Emilie. John is listed as a jeweler. His father-in-law is a cabinet maker

This image is from the 1879 Peoria City Directory.

Tom

Tom,
Cool! Did you Google-map 122 S. Adams in Peoria to see if the old store is still there? Maybe Google has a street view! I love doing this biographical digging stuff. It helps make these people come "alive".
I found a web site showing that Woelfle was a member of the board of directors of the Peoria Watch Company.
Here's your closeup of the gold mark - taken hand held at my desk under the light of a 60W incandescent bulb. I doubt if it will get much clearer even if I put the camera on a tripod. What do you make of it? And you better not say, "Bach"!
Mike

Mike

I agree about doing the research on these watches, I mainly collect watches that I can put back to a certain owner or jeweler.

I was wondering if that mark was a duty mark but I can't find one similar to it.

Tom

Mike, concerning the images in the foreground of the engraved scene, to me it looks like a bridge with a small boat in the water in the lower left corner. It appears that below the bridge abutments they have engraved what appears to be shadows or reflections in the water. Now, if that is land under the "bridge," then I would say it is an Italian aquaduct for transporting water. Back in 1967 I was stationed in Italy and I saw the ruins of many of these aquaducts around Rome. They looked very much like what is in your engraving. Does it look like land under the structure, or does it look like water with a boat?

Excellent call, Bruce! I believe they are aquaducts; there is a series of equally spaced arches with the water carrying portion above. Using my imagination, I see grist mill water wheels aside the arches with water supplied by the aquaducts, and a granary and a twin steepled church in the background. Excess water is spilling off the wheels.

Here is a screen capture of English duty marks. It appears the mark on this case is a duty mark (first man facing left), but I still don't know if it is a solid gold, or gold-filled case. Anybody?

http://www.silvercollection.it...silverhallmarks.html