James McCabe No. 471A Victorian Royal presentation engraved gilt-brass eight-day marine chronometer. Circa 1860

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James McCabe No. 471 A Victorian Royal presentation engraved gilt-brass eight-day marine chronometer. Circa 1860

Details

James McCabe No. 471

A Victorian Royal presentation engraved gilt-brass eight-day marine chronometer. Circa 1860
The dial signed James Mc.Cabe Royal Exchange London on the chapter ring with raised polished gilt Roman chapters, the centre finely engraved with scrolling foliage with large diameter subsidiary seconds ring at VI and up-and-down ring beneath XII, elaborately pierced lancet form blued hands, the movement signed James McCabe, Royal Exchange, LONDON. 471, Earnshaw escapement, main and sub-frame assemblies, cut bimetallic balance, segmental heat compensation weights, blued steel helical balance spring, spring foot detent with jewelled locking stone, the glazed bowl held within an elaborate pierced and foliate engraved gimbal secured in a trunion-type setting in the uprights of the heavily cast gilt stand chased and engraved with intricate foliate designs with scroll feet, the sides with glazed shaped and recessed reserves painted on one side with the Royal monogram VR (Victoria Regina) with the crown and star beneath, the alternate side painted with a monogram (Maharaja of Kashmir?) above the motto Heavens Light Our Guide within a sunburst, on a rectangular gilt-wood base with entrelac carving and covered with a similarly carved glazed gilt-wood rectangular case
115 mm. dial diam., 215 x 300 mm. display case

Provenance

Christie's, London, 26 November, 1996, lot 386, sold to the present owner

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

The main frame and sub-frame assemblies and dial-plate are all numbered 460. There are no marks behind the dial.
A similar but less elaborate presentation chronometer, McCabe No. 448, was exhibited at Aspreys, Exhibition of Marine Chronometers, 1972, exhibit No. 45, sold with its original invoice, dated 1856.

The present chronometer is of an even grander design than No. 448, the engraving is of McCabe's best quality and the decoration virtually stands proud of the background. A carriage clock by McCabe with similar engraving is illustrated in Derek Roberts, Carriage and Other Travelling Clocks, Schiffer, 1993, fig. 20-16 a, b, c & d.

The cypher above the motto Heavens Light Our Guide is thought to be for the Maharaja of Kashmir. The opposing side is indubitably Queen Victoria's Royal crown and cypher. The words Heavens Light Our Guide was the motto of the Chivalric Order of the Star of India, instigated in 1861 by Queen Victoria. It would therefore seem likely that this chronometer was made to order as a diplomatic gift to the Maharaja of Kashmir, who had recently been instated by the British, presumably to curry favour.

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