- Museum number
- 1958,1201.2242
- Description
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GILT-BRASS CASED VERGE CLOCK-WATCH WITH HOUR STRIKING.
:
CASE
Round gilt-brass case with hinged lid. The integral back is pierced and engraved with a symmetrical scroll design surrounding a central rosette and within an outer border of engraved foliate scrolls. Within upper and lower mouldings, the band is decorated in a similar manner to the back with reversed S-shaped scrolls. The hinged lid, has an outer border of foliate scrolls surrounding a series of oval apertures to reveal the hours. The central panel is engraved with a scroll design incorporating a bat with out-stretched wings beneath a canopy. On the inside the lid has a decorative border surrounding the 12 apertures which are stippled. In the centre a narrow border of Quatrefoils encloses a blank shield. Gilt-brass pendant with four scroll feet. Pierced quatrefoil gilt-brass finial. Inside the case the bell is screwed to a central boss.
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DIAL & HAND
Gilt-brass dial with an engraved border around the underside. Three lugs for bayonet attachment to the movement, one locked by a latch. The dial has a border of foliate scrolls surrounding an engraved chapter-ring with Roman hours I-XII and * half-hour marks. The engraved area within the chapter-ring shows a naked man and woman beneath a canopy. Between them is a strapwork design and three fruits, an engraved design depicts two naked female figures beneath a canopy. On the back of the dial a one-piece steel case catch spring and bolt, the shaped foot locating around a rectangular stud on the plate. Finely made blued-steel hand but probably a modern copy of an original - there is little shaping except in the middle and the pointer and tail are not in line. :
MOVEMENT
Frame: Circular gilt-brass plates with four pierced Egyptian pillars in inverted form, with the widest part towards the pillar-plate. The potence-plate with a border of scrolling foliage. Around the verge aperture are a series of pierced holes for decoration. The potence-plate is signed.
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Mainspring & Set-Up: Gilt-brass barrel with upper and lower flanges, dovetailed cap and riveted steel hook. A domed boss on the base and a flat boss on the cap. Two holes for gut-line attachment. The cap is unusual in having two diameters rather than the normal flat type. Although the mainspring is not modern, it is unlikely to be original.
Bow-and-arrow ratchet and click set-up with elaborately shaped blued-steel spring and click. The steel ratchet wheel is most probably a replacement, or at least completely refinished by being filed flat.
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Fusee & Stop-Work: Gilt-brass fusee for gut-line with standard stop-work. The winding square now very badly damaged. The fusee profile is almost conical with virtually no belling at the large end. This may suggest that it is not original. Holes for the gut line in the plane of the groove. Standard stop-work with a steel hook on the fusee and a gilt-brass shaped block. The stop-iron is now missing.
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Train: Three wheel train of gilt-brass wheels, the contrate wheel not original - it is gilded in a different colour from the rest of the watch and the collet is of a different design.
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Escapement: Verge escapement, the crown wheel running between a riveted potence and a riveted counter-potence. Both potence and counter-potence have undergone extensive repairs and the verge aperture has been file away to provide clearance for the crown wheel which although appearing to be original may have been repositioned by the repairs to the potence. the verge is a replacement fitted to the original balance-wheel. The pierced and engraved foliate balance-cock is pinned to a rectangular tapering stud on the potence-plate. The retaining pin is untypically entered from the left.
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Motion Work: A steel pinion of report fitted to the triangular end of the great-wheel arbor drives a brass dial wheel which carries a 12-point star-wheel for strike release.
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Striking Train: Driven by a gilt-brass fixed barrel screwed to the underside of the potence-plate, with pierced and engraved foliate scrolls on the visible side.
The blued steel mainspring is not original. The brass barrel arbor may also be a replacement, it is not gilded in the same colour as the rest of the watch and the ratchet teeth are badly formed. Six wheel train of gilt-brass wheels, the last being a roller pinion with a gilt-brass turned weight. The second wheel has pins for operating the hammer and the third wheel has a stud for locking and warning. Two spring-loaded steel 'gates', one with release and warning detents, the other with locking and count-wheel detents. The shaped steel hammer is unusual in having a rectangular slot for the return spring and a female pivot i.e. a pin in the plate and a hole in the arbor, in the end which engages in the potence-plate. This may be a later repair for a broken pivot. The hammer arbor and the 'gates' are all decoratively turned. The striking is controlled by a count-wheel running on the outside of the potence-plate, driven by a pinion on the extended second-wheel arbor. To retain the count-wheel there is a pierced and engraved foliate cock. The barrel has geared stop-work but all the components, including the retaining cock are replacements, the original wheel and pinion were almost certainly made from blued-steel. The strike-release lever is missing.
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TRAIN COUNT:
Going Train:
Great wheel:54
Second wheel:45 pinion:6
Contrate wheel:45 pinion:5
Crown wheel:15 pinion:5
:
Beats per hour:16,823 [with altered wheels and pinions]
:
Motion Work/Duration:
Pinion of report:6
Dial wheel:54
Fusee:13
Duration:17.5 hours
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Striking train:
Great wheel:48
Second wheel:40 pinion:8 + 8 pins for hammer [pin wheel]
Third wheel:36 pinion:5 [pin for locking and warning]
Fourth wheel:30 pinion:6
Fifth wheel:25 pinion:5
Fly pinion/roller:5
Pinion of report:4 Count-wheel:39
- Production date
- 1595-1605
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 60 millimetres (case)
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Thickness: 30.50 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Loomes, in Early Clockmakers, says "Bul(c)ke, Jacques de: Repaired royal clocks in 1599. Believed also worked in Paris.(taken from Britten).
Baillie: Royal reference, "employed to repair clocks 'remayning in riche peeces of plate within our tower of London'".
:
1. The going train has undergone some repairs and improvements, in particular, the replacement of the contrate wheel and possibly the fusee. In addition, the components of the stop-work for the striking train have also been replaced.
2. The bell is a replacement - its sound quality is poor, it is too thick for the square boss and too small for the movement.Loomes, in Early Clockmakers, says "Bul(c)ke, Jacques de: Repaired royal clocks in 1599. Believed also worked in Paris.(taken from Britten).
Baillie: Royal reference, "employed to repair clocks 'remayning in riche peeces of plate within our tower of London'".
:
1. The going train has undergone some repairs and improvements, in particular, the replacement of the contrate wheel and possibly the fusee. In addition, the components of the stop-work for the striking train have also been replaced.
2. The bell is a replacement - its sound quality is poor, it is too thick for the square boss and too small for the movement.
Associated dates : 1812.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Latest: 3 (2017)
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Acquisition notes
- Robert Atkinson collection, sold Christie's 27th October 1953, lot 27 purchased by Malcolm Gardner and sold to Ilbert.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1958,1201.2242
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 491 (Atkinson number (painted in red inside bell))
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: CAI.2242 (Ilbert Collection)
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: Q236 (Ilbert Ledger)
