Baldwin & Co.

[a laban]

Does anyone know of a good resource (hopefully on-line) of information on Baldwin & Co.? I have an Appleton Tracey watch that has a convertable hunters case from Baldwin #8150 and I am having trouble finding info on that company so I can learn more about the case - Thanks!

[Kent]

On page 52 of “History of the American Watch Case,” Warren H. Niebling, Whitmore Publishing, Philadelphia, PA, 1971 (available on loan by mail to members from the NAWCC Library & Research Center (http://www.nawcc.org/Library/library.htm)), Mr. Niebling states:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Baldwin & C0., c. 1850, became Taylor & Baldwin, date of change not known-Newark, N.J. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The information on Taylor & Baldwin, on page 57 is a bit cryptic in light of the above:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Taylor & Baldwin, 1836 to 1840's, jewelers and case makers-Newark N.J. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

However, on page 29 it's stated:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Taylor & Baldwin Co., Newark N.J., while in business prior to 1836, did not start to make cases until that year. Not much else is known of the company with regard to case making activities. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Clint Geller]

I know of no reference exclusively dealing with Baldwin & Co. However, if you click on the attached link to the E. Howard & Co. section of the 2002 NAWCC National Seminar on-line exhibit, you will find two outstanding examples of Baldwin's work. Here is the link.

http://www.awco.org/Seminar2002/Howard.htm

The first example houses Howard movement S/N 132 and has a case S/N matching that of the movement. As documented in my book, NAWCC BULLETIN Special Order Supplement #6, published in December, 2005, S/N 132 is overwhelmingly likely to have been the first Howard divided plate keywind ("Series I") movement to be completed by the factory. The second example, housing movement S/N 21,572, was Samuel Baldwin's personal property. Both the dial and case carry the monogram, "S.B." Furthermore, the monogram is drawn on the dial in such a manner that the "S" appears to pivot on the central spoke of the "B," in abstract representation of Baldwin's patented case machanism. The movement, which is believed to be original to the case, is one of four known examples of the first run of nickel damascened Model 1862 ("Series III") movements, which are the only nickel movements (actually nickel plated in this instance)Howard ever made featuring R. S. Mershon's patented rack-and-pin regulator.

It is interesting to note that the reversible case machanism operates differently in the early and later examples in the exhibit. On S# 132, a button on the rim of the case must be depressed in order to change it from hunting to open face configurations. Conversely on the later example, depressing the crown both activates the lift spring (when the case is in hunting configuration) and also frees the movement to rotate within it's frame.

Reversible keywind cases are rare. In my 20+ years of collecting and researching, I have seen only five such cases housing Howard keywind movements (one of which was a silver case signed "Tiffany & Co." that did not carry the Baldwin patent mark), and three housing Waltham movements (two Model 1857 examples and a Model 1859). The Baldwin reversible cases I have seen are all 18k and quite massive, as well as beautifully engraved.

I have attempted unsuccessfully thus far to document a relationship between Samuel Baldwin, founder of Baldwin and Co. of Philadelphia, and Matthias Baldwin, also of Phila., founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. I managed to find only a titilating tidbit of information that M. Baldwin had been apprenticed to a clockmaker early in his career, hinting at a possible common horoligical connection.

Kent, I believe that Neibling is mistaken and that Baldwin & Co. still was doing business under that name in the late 1860's.

[Jerry Treiman]

According to a reference I recently found - "The Glitter and the Gold - Fashioning America's Jewelry"*, Taylor & Baldwin dates to around 1818 when Isaac Baldwin partnered with John Taylor, Jr. in the company previously known as Taylor & Hinsdale in Newark, New Jersey. Taylor retired in 1842 and the company became Baldwin & Co. with Isaac, his sons, Horace and Wickliffe Baldwin, and C.E. Chevalier as partners. They manufactured jewelry, silverware and watch cases. When Chevalier retired Elihu Bliss became a partner. (It was Bliss who invented the reversible case in 1858 and assigned the patent to Baldwin & Co). I have not found any Samuel Baldwin associated with the case design or the company. Isaac died in 1853 and Horace died in 1855. When Bliss retired Wickliffe became the only remaining partner and in 1860 he transferred the business to Thomas Brown under whom the firm became Thomas Brown & Sons, also in Newark.

From this information it would appear that all Baldwin & Co. cases should date between 1842 and 1860. Perhaps Howard # 21,572 (made about 1869), referred to in Clint's post above, was cased in a previously made Baldwin case that remained in jewelers' stock until 1869, or perhaps Wickliffe only transferred the jewelry business to Brown and continued to make cases. If so, such company history from the 1860s is hidden from us at present.


* by Ulysses Grant Dietz and others and published by The Newark Museum in 1997 in conjunction with a major exhibit of the same name