"The virtuosity of the chasing of London watchcases and gold boxes in the eighteenth century has been widely admired, but little studied. This book is the first substantial account of the chasers; their international origins, their training and techniques, the engraved sources of their designs, and their relationships with the patrons and watchmakers who commissioned their work. It offers a biographical dictionary of the chasers, including Augustin Heckel and Henry Manly from Augsburg, and the major figure of George Michael Moser, first Keeper of the Royal Academy. On his death in 1783 Moser was described by Sir Joshua Reynolds as 'the FATHER of the present race of Artists' because of his long involvement in the early art schools of London. Moser began a life class with his fellow chaser, John Valentine Haidt, in Salisbury Court in the 1730s, became a leading organiser of the St. Martin's Lane Academy, and played a significant role in the foundation of the Royal Academy." "With the aid of enlarged photographs, this book analyses the work of an international body of artists who not only decorated royal presentation boxes and the cases of some of the leading watchmakers, including George Graham, the Ellicotts, and Thomas Mudge, but had a wider impact on the artistic world in London. It will appeal to all those interested in horology, the art of the goldsmith, the organisation of London crafts, and the development of the rococo in England."--BOOK JACKET.