AN EARLY VICTORIAN ROSEWOOD FOUR-GLASS CHRONOMETER TIMEPIECE ROBERT MOLYNEAUX, LONDON, CIRCA 1840
Details
CASE: the ‘library' glazed case with angular loop handle, the plinth raised on adjustable pad feet DIAL: 43⁄4 inch silvered dial with 24 hour dial and minutes marked at ‘5, 10, 20, 25, 35, 40, 50 and 55', inner subsidiary seconds ring, signed below ‘Robt. Molyneux / patentee / 30 Southampton Row / London' MOVEMENT: the substantial plates joined by double-screwed tapering pillars, the chain fusee timepiece with Harrison maintaining power and detent escapement, the balance wheel with Molyneux's middle temperature error auxiliary compensation, with blued steel helical balance spring, the backplate with twin case brackets and signed ‘Robt. Molyneux / 30 Southampton Row / London' 10 in. (25.4 cm.) handle down; 7 in. (17.8 cm.) wide; 51⁄4 in. (13.3 cm.) deep
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Antiquorum, Geneva, 21 October 1995, lot 142. With Anthony Woodburn, June 2000.
Lot Essay
COMPARTIVE LITERATURE: Christopher Wood, 'Robert Molyneux's Astronomical Clocks and Chronometers', Antiquarian Horology, volume VII, number 7, June 1972, pp. 607-612 and volume IX, number 4, June 1975, pp. 412-425.
Details
CASE: the ‘library' glazed case with angular loop handle, the plinth raised on adjustable pad feet DIAL: 43⁄4 inch silvered dial with 24 hour dial and minutes marked at ‘5, 10, 20, 25, 35, 40, 50 and 55', inner subsidiary seconds ring, signed below ‘Robt. Molyneux / patentee / 30 Southampton Row / London' MOVEMENT: the substantial plates joined by double-screwed tapering pillars, the chain fusee timepiece with Harrison maintaining power and detent escapement, the balance wheel with Molyneux's middle temperature error auxiliary compensation, with blued steel helical balance spring, the backplate with twin case brackets and signed ‘Robt. Molyneux / 30 Southampton Row / London' 10 in. (25.4 cm.) handle down; 7 in. (17.8 cm.) wide; 51⁄4 in. (13.3 cm.) deep
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Antiquorum, Geneva, 21 October 1995, lot 142. With Anthony Woodburn, June 2000.
Lot Essay
COMPARTIVE LITERATURE: Christopher Wood, 'Robert Molyneux's Astronomical Clocks and Chronometers', Antiquarian Horology, volume VII, number 7, June 1972, pp. 607-612 and volume IX, number 4, June 1975, pp. 412-425.
