watch
- Museum number
- 1958,1201.1045
- Description
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MOVEMENT, DIAL AND DUST-CAP OF A LEVER WATCH.
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30-tooth rack lever escapement.
White enamel dial; hours I-XII.
Pierced gold spade hands; not original.
Gilt-brass dust-cap.
Case missing.
- Production date
- 1805-1815
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 42.30 millimetres (dial)
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Diameter: 40.60 millimetres (dust-cap)
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Thickness: 17.80 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Comment from Richard Good, Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum. Vol. V (Unpublished manuscript)
Made by Peter Litherland and Company
Liverpool, c. 1810
Movement of a rack lever watch.
Signature: Signed 'Litherland and Co. Liverpool' on the barrel bridge and 'No 5278' on the back plate.
Case: Missing
Dial & hands: Slightly domed dial, damaged on the edge between X and XII. A black letter 'V' fired into the counter-enamel. Gold spade hands, with the body of each hand pierced out.
Dial-plate: scratched '230 WM' ?
Dust-cap: Engraved 'PATENTEES'around the balance cock aperture. Scratched '52578' on the inside.
Movement:
Ebauche Marks: none
Frame: Full plate with four turned pillars. A typical Liverpool balance cock inscribed 'PATENT' in a cartouche. Scratched '5278' on the underside of the balance cock and on the front plate. An escapement protection pin on the inside of the back plate.
Fusee, Barrel and Mainspring:
Fusee: six-turn fusee without maintaining power.
Barrel: internal diameter 16.5 mm, height 5.2 mm.
Mainspring: height 4.8 mm, thickness 0.24 mm.
Barrel Arbor: diameter 5.3 mm.
Hooking: Originally square but now round.
Train: gilded wheels, the centre wheel solid, the third wheel with four crossings.
Jewelling: Only the balance pivots are jewelled, with a diamond endstone for the balance cock and a ruby endstone in the wedge in the potence.
Escapement: An acute-angle rack lever escapement with a two-way slide. The enclosed pallet stones have flat acting faces. Gilded escape wheel with four crossings. The teeth on the rack and leaves of the balance pinion are both worn.
An equal impulse escapement.
No of teeth embraced 32.
Balance & Spring: A flat-rim, three-arm polished steel balance, diameter 20.6 mm, thickness 0.5 mm. A blued-steel flat spiral spring of 52 turns.
Means of Regulation: A Bosley regulator registering against a divided scale on the back plate inscribed 'Slow' and 'Fast'.
Train Counts and Beat Rate:
Great wheel 60 (fusee)
Centre wheel 90 pinion 12
Third wheel 90 pinion 6
Escape wheel 30 pinion 6
Rack 13, balance pinion 6
Beat rate 13,500
Motion work cannon pinion 12, minute wheel 48
minute pinion 14, hour wheel 42
Winding System: Key wound
Dimensions:
Movement: diameter 42.2 mm, height 17.9 mm, pillar height 4.7 mm.
Provenance: Formerly in the Ilbert Collection. Ilbert purchased this from Isaacs 12/1/1931.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
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Latest: 4 (2017)
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3 (1994)
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Acquisition notes
- Following the successful acquisition of the celebrated Ilbert collection of clocks (1958,1006 collection), prints and other related materials made possible by the generous donation of funds by Gilbert Edgar CBE Ilbert's watches were then acquired using funds provided by Gilbert Edgar, public donations and government funds.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1958,1201.1045
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: CAI.1045 (Ilbert Collection)
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: L151 (Ilbert Ledger)