Lot Essay
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 1806-1859 was unquestionably a genius, a man of magnetic personality and one of Britain's greatest engineers. His father, Marc Brunel, a Frenchman and highly accomplished engineer in his own right, was a commited Royalist and was forced to flee from the Revolution to the United States and then in 1799 arrived in England. He recognised his son's precocious talent at an early age and sent him to school at Caen College, Normandy in 1820 and then to the Lycée Henri Quatre in Paris. Lastly he went to the great Maison Breguet for approximately a year. This last and fascinating step in his education although unusual, is in fact not so surprising on further investigation. Marc Brunel's own reputation was widespread due to his work at the time on the Thames tunnel. Added to this is the knowledge that Brunel's maternal Great uncle was the pre-eminent watchmaker Thomas Mudge (1715-1794) a fact that must have had great bearing on his entrance into Maison Breguet. That Breguet himself thought highly of his pupil is evident in a letter to Marc Brunel in November 1821 'Je sens Qu'il est important de cultivez chez lui les heureuses dispositions inventives qu'il doit à la nature , ou à l'éducation, mais qu'il serait bien dommage de voir perdre'
Isambard Kingdom Brunel's lifetime achievements were leviathan and included: the Clifton suspension bridge, The Great Western Railway, The Thames suspension bridge and three enormous steam ships including the Great Eastern, the largest ship afloat at its time of manufacture. Brunel purchased this regulator circa 1850 at the height of his career. The choice of a regulator should perhaps come as little surprise but that it should have been by Dent was almost certainly because in 1843 Dent took over from Arnold as Breguet's UK agents. Family history has it that Brunel had a hand in designing part of the movement and indeed the escapement with external deadbeat and two-piece crutch are of very definite French influence and this along with the fact that it was one of Dent's very earliest wall regulators lends credence to this. It is a fascinating thought for certainly the design of its movement and case go a long way to reflect the extraordinary personality and immense creative genius of its original owner
Isambard Kingdom Brunel's lifetime achievements were leviathan and included: the Clifton suspension bridge, The Great Western Railway, The Thames suspension bridge and three enormous steam ships including the Great Eastern, the largest ship afloat at its time of manufacture. Brunel purchased this regulator circa 1850 at the height of his career. The choice of a regulator should perhaps come as little surprise but that it should have been by Dent was almost certainly because in 1843 Dent took over from Arnold as Breguet's UK agents. Family history has it that Brunel had a hand in designing part of the movement and indeed the escapement with external deadbeat and two-piece crutch are of very definite French influence and this along with the fact that it was one of Dent's very earliest wall regulators lends credence to this. It is a fascinating thought for certainly the design of its movement and case go a long way to reflect the extraordinary personality and immense creative genius of its original owner