913

,-,18k Gold Size 18, 1 minute Repeater Chronograph Pocket Watch with Locket and Chain

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Jewelry & Watches Start Price:3,750.00 USD Estimated At:7,500.00 USD and UP
,-,18k Gold Size 18, 1 minute Repeater Chronograph Pocket Watch with Locket and Chain
Preview
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite#309
Reno, NV 89511
Thursday August22, 10am-6pm
* Preview also available by appointment

Live Auction
Friday & Saturday
August 23 & 24, 2013
9am PDT starting time, both days

Location
Atlantis Casino & Resort
Grand Ballroom #4
3800 S. Virginia Street
Reno, NV 89502

Lot Pick Up
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite #309
Reno, NV 89511
Sunday August 25, 10am-1pm

c1890s-This superb watch bears the distinction of being a repeater (it plays two-tonal chimes on the quarter hour) and is also a chronograph with two separate buttons to start/stop the timer and to reset the hand to zero. This watch is a large size 18, hunter case, with stem set / stem wind. The white double-sunk dial features an outer chapter ring of red Arabic numerals for the chronograph (stopwatch) function, an inner chapter ring with black Arabic numerals for the hours, and the seconds dial is marked in red Arabic numerals in 10 second intervals. The three hands on the main face are blued: moon, spade, whip. And the seconds hand on the smaller face is also blued and straight. The hunter case is plain, and bears no markings other than an engraving on the cuvet to "Conrad Dahl/ 1898" and a serial number 5979. The movement appears to be 23 jewels and bears absolutely no markings to indicate a manufacturer or serial number. In addition to the magnificent watch, this lot includes a lustrous 14k marked gold chain, 15" long, with a T-bar at one end and a golden locket fob attached to a 1.5" length of chain. The locket is empty, but is a stunning match to the gold on the watch and chain. A stunning find, rarely seen and highly rare and valuable.
Conrad Dahl was one of the many Scandinavian miners who ventured to Alaska and the Yukon. Dahl, born about 1865 in Norway, came to Alaska perhaps in the early 1890’s. He prospected Forty Mile Creek.
Gold was discovered in the fall of 1886 in Forty Mile Creek by a man named Franklin. The creek had originally been named Shitando River, but the name was changed by miners because of its location forty miles below Fort Reliance, the “Old Hudson Bay Post.” God was discovered there in 1886, and a mining camp followed in 1887 called Franklin Gulch. The placer gold yield the first year was about $100,000. By 1893 there were more than 300 miners in the area, a very remote region of Alaska.
In the summer of 1893, Dahl had worked his way up to the headwaters of Forty Mile and staked a claim in Franklin Gulch. When winter hit his work was stalled for awhile. By March, he was hungry for gold. Using the old methods of born and thaw. Dahl thawed the ground by burning wood on top of the ground, repeating the process over and over until bedrock was reached, allowing him access to pockets and crevices where the gold was hidden for eons. On March 26, 1994, Dahl found a 30 ounce nugget, then the largest nugget ever found in Alaska, and remained so until the Klondike rush of 1897. Dahl sent the nugget to the San Francisco Mint, where it was melted and he was paid the handsome sum of $491.45. The nugget was about 4” long, 2.5 inches with and varied in thickness from 0.8 to 1.2 inches thick. Dahl retained ownership of his claim, and leased it to a string of Scandinavian miners over the next fifteen or more years. By 1910, Dahl had moved to Tacoma, Washington.
[Ref: Spurr, J. E., Geology of the Yukon District, USGS 18th Annual report, 1898, pp87-on.. Brown, M. W.; The Yukon Goldfields; 1899. Ancestry.com. Leslie’s, v40, p210. ] HKA#64343