David Thompson
Curator, Horological Collections
Horological collections
Department: Prehistory and Europe
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8623
Email: dthompson @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
David Thompson studied clock and watch making
at Hackney College, East London between 1977 and 1979. He became an
assistant curator in the Horological Section in 1979 and has been
senior curator of horology since 1995. David has responsibility for
about 7,000 objects, including about 1,000 clocks, 4,500 watches
and other horological materials. He also manages the Horological
Study Room, its dedicated library and photographic archive.
While his expertise encompasses all aspects
and periods of horology David nevertheless specialises in the
history and technology of watch making in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries and is currently working on a catalogue of
early watches made before the introduction of the balance-spring in
1675.
Current British Museum projects
A New Permanent Horological Gallery –
opening July 2008.
Ashmolean Museum handbook
‘Watches’ Ashmolean Museum, due summer 2007.
British Museum ‘Watches’, British Museum
Press, due Autumn 2007.
British Museum Catalogue of Watches
Volume II, Pre-balance spring watches with fusee – in progress.
Previous British Museum projects
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External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies
Fellow of the British Horological
Institute
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of
London
Freeman of the Worshipful Company of
Clockmakers
Council Member of the Antiquarian Horological
Society
Visiting lecturer in Horological History at
West Dean College
Publications
Most recent publications
D. Thompson, ‘Jan Janssen Bockelts The Younger, Puritan Style
Verge Watch with Centre seconds, Haarlem, c.1630’ Antiquarian
Horology, XXIX, December, (2006), pp. 827-830
D. Thompson, ‘Octavius Morgan: Horological
Collector’ part VII, Antiquarian Horology, XXIX,
September, (2006), pp. 629-644
D. Thompson, ‘Thomas Martin, Royal Exchange,
1778’, Antiquarian Horology, XXIX, March, (2006), pp.
344-347
D. Thompson, ‘Octavius Morgan: Horological
Collector’ part VI, Antiquarian Horology, XXIX, December,
(2005), pp. 89 - 216
D. Thompson, ‘Octavius Morgan: Horological
Collector’ part V, Antiquarian Horology, XXVIII, March,
(2005), pp. 602-618