Show ODD OLD WATCHES carious and artistic ancient time pieces geue of koyal end pcr of a aly goue time some old specimens of the watchmakers skill some of the earliest watches were made about the beginning of the sixteenth century and were of course at that time considered marvels of skill these first pocket clocks says the new york journal were made bof almost any shape except round and had but one hand and required winding twice a a day some of them in addition to recording the hour of the day were perfect giving the day of the month the changes of the moon the rising and setting of the sun and other items of useful information in the time of queen elizabeth watches were suspended round the necks of their bearers wearers or attached to bracelets and for this purpose hey were made in the shape of crosses and various other suitable many of the early time pieces however were much too large and heavy to be worn in this manner and were in fact in tended to be placed on private altars such as were to be found in most of the I 1 noble houses of the day some of these watches are in the form of a skull one of these curious time pieces belonged to mary queen of scots and which she gave to the mary seaton one of her four marys this strange keepsake is ornamented with various figures each having a particular meaning and has a good deal of open work at the bottom in order to allow the sounding of the passing hours to be heard as they are struck upon a silver bell in the interior abarge A large number of the earlier watches were of an oval shape though some resemble those of the the poet Mil tons watch upon the face of which his Tiame in full is engraved thus boanni maltoni Mil toni 1631 may be seen in the british museum as well as two said to belong to oliver cromwell the case of one of these is made of silver and is ornamented at the top with the pro teeters initials 0 X and at the bot a representation of a curved sword which doubtless is intended to denote that the owner belonged to the army A there are many old fashioned time pieces in the some collection most of these were made during the seventeenth century and are in the form of skulls I 1 crosses bells and various fruits there also is a very curious german book 1 shaped watch made about the year it is made of silver and when closed resembles a tiny book with the cover beautifully ornamented fon in those days when opened the face of the watch is disclosed among other peculiar watches in this collection is one that was made in france between the years and it is in the form of a dog resting A little catch under the forepaws of the dog secures the outer case and so we are not permitted to have a glimpse at the canous was on one occasion presented with a remarkable watch as a birthday present it was less than an inch in diameter weighed no more than a sixpence and repeated the hours quarters and even the half quarters this beautiful timepiece time piece was designed and made by a watchmaker watch maker arnold and it is related that the king was so delighted with the gift that he sent in return a note of thanks and a sum of five hundred guineas if is said chrt the clever workman was afterward af pf more than a thousand by tha emperor of russia for a duplicate of the little marvel but he refused to make another even for that large sum of money another very small ivaton was formerly the property of king george III it a ring and dial chichis chis about the size of a sixpence is surrounded with very small diamonds with a large diamond on each side it is of exquisite workmanship and must have cost a large sum of money some curious watches were made many years figa for enabling a person to tell the time during merely feeling the face of the watch these were called touch watches and had only one hand with raised pins at each hour so thai a person could fe eithe time a knight 0 t then there were the curioso curio io old fash boned table watches these were usually constructed with a kind of dome and were much larger than the watches in ordinary use being made use at table |