AN 18K GOLD AND ENAMEL WILLIAM MCKINLEY INAGURATION POCKETWATCH. Featuring a manual movement, ro...

AN 18K GOLD AND ENAMEL WILLIAM MCKINLEY INAGURATION POCKETWATCH. Featuring a manual movement, round dial with Arabic hour markers, serial number 1000057, dial signed Hampden, case measuring 38.00 mm, estimated gross weight 43.6 grams. Provenance: gift of John Dueber (1841-1907) to William McKinley; gift of his widow Ida McKinley to her niece, Ida McKinley Barber (1881-1944), daughter of Ida's sister Mary Saxton Barber; by descent to Ida's daughter Ida McKinley Day (1909-2002); by descent through the family to the present. VERY RARE, POSSIBLY UNIQUE WATCH CELEBRATING MCKINLEY'S INAUGURATION. This handsome watch manufactured by the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company is a remarkable souvenir of McKinley's 1897 campaign, presented by company owner John Dueber to McKinley, and descended from McKinley's widow to her niece through the present. John Dueber was a Prussian immigrant who, as a young man, apprenticed to a watchmaker to learn the trade before opening his own watch case company. In the early years of his business, he found himself at odds with a watchmaking consortium that refused to sell him works for his cases. His solution was to buy a watch company of his own, and so he purchased the Hampden Watch Company of New York. When he sought to merge his case and works companies, he put out the word to cities throughout the Midwest that for the sum of $100,000 and adequate land, he would move his entire operation to their city. Canton, OH took up his offer, and within a few years the Dueber-Hampden company employed 3000 people, making Canton the Watch Capitol of the World. Dueber and McKinley became close after the former moved to Canton: they lived across the street from each other and Dueber was an important booster during McKinley's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. After the assassination, Dueber was a pall bearer at McKinley's funeral and as a tribute named one of his watch models after the late president. The 1896 election pitted Republican William McKinley and his conservative, pro-business agenda that included protectionist tariffs and maintaining the gold standard against Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan running on an agrarian, populist agenda that argued for transitioning to a silver standard and implementing government relief for farmers. The two campaign slogans on this watch are a succinct distillation of McKinley's policies: 'Open the Mills / Not the Mints' spread across the obverse and reverse refers to the argument to remain on the gold standard vs switching to the more plentiful silver (which would lead to printing more money). 'In Gold we Trust / McKinley and Protection' on the reverse refers again to the gold standard, but also to protectionist tariffs that McKinley proposed to fend off overseas competition for U.S. businesses. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing