An historically important oak month-going wall regulator

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THE BRUNEL REGULATOR In a recent BBC poll Isambard Kingdon Brunel, whose anniversary it is this year, was voted the second greatest Briton of all time - after Sir Winston Churchill. Born in Portsmouth on 9 April, 1806 he was the son of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and Sophia (neé Kingdom). His father was a Frenchman and highly accomplished engineer in his own right. A commited Royalist, he was forced to flee from the French Revolution to the United States and then moved to England in 1799. 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, and most poignantly, Brunel spent approximately one year studying horology under the great Master himself Abraham Louis Breguet, France's greatest clock and watchmaker of the 19th Century. This last and fascinating step in his education could be considered unusual, but in fact Brunel's family had clockmaking in it's blood. Brunel's maternal great uncle was the pre-eminent watchmaker Thomas Mudge (1715-1794), an interesting connection that may have had some bearing on his entrance into Maison Breguet. That Breguet himself thought highly of Brunel is evident in a letter to his father 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, particularly given his relatively short working life of about 30 years. His career began working for his father on the first ever completed Thames Tunnel which still exists, operating on the London Underground East London Line between Roterhithe and Wapping. It succeeded where other attempts failed because Sir Marc invented a tunnelling shield apparently based on the habits and anatomy of the shipworm (teredo navalis). The shield protected the workers by placing them in a protected casing as the tunnel progressed, a method still used today, notably on the England to France Channel Tunnel. In 1828 the tunnel collapsed with Isambard Kingdom Brunel in it, he was knocked unconcious and washed away by the surging river up to a service stairway where he was plucked from almost certain death by an assistant. Seriously hurt he spent many months in recouperation duing which time he entered a design competition for a new bridge over the Avon Gorge. The judge for the competition was the Scottish engineer Thomas Telford who rejected all the designs in favour of his own. This provoked an infamous scandal and a second competition was held and one of young Brunel's designs was chosen, however, owing to lack of funds construction on the now famous Clifton Suspension Bridge (the longest span of any bridge on the world at its time of conception) was delayed until after his death. Brunel very quickly became one of England's most sought-after engineers. He carried out a number of dock designs in Bristol, Brentford, Milford Haven and Plymouth. In 1833 he was appointed Chief Engineer to the Great Western Railway, one of the wonders of Victorian Britain running from London to Bristol and later on to Exeter - one of the prettiest rail routes in the country. His most remarkable feat for the GWR was the Box Tunnel - the longest railway tunnel in the world at that time. It took almost six years to complete and when the crews tunneling from each end finally met in the middle, they were found to be a mere 1¼ inches out of alignment. Despite laying over 1000 miles of track in Britain his passion for rail design was not just a native confinement, he designed lines in Italy, Australia and India. Even before the GWR was opened Brunel was moving on to his next project, transatlantic shipping. He used his prestige to persuade the Governors of his rail company to build the Great Western, at the time by far the largest steam ship in the world. She first sailed in 1837; she was 236 feet long, built of wood and powered by sail and paddlewheels. Her first trip to New York City took just 29 days compared to two months for an average sailing ship, in total 74 crossings to New York were made. The Great Britain followed in 1843; at 322 feet she was the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic. Building on these successes a third ship was started in 1852 and it was intended for voyages to India and Australia. The Great Eastern (dubbed The Leviathan) was cutting-edge technology at the time; she almost 700 feet long and carrying over 4,000 passengers. It remained the largest ship built until the turn of the century. Brunel was a workaholic, often labouring 18 hours a day. He stood a little over 5 feet tall and favoured tall top hats to make himself appear taller. He was married to Mary Horsley in 1836 and they had three children, Isambard, Henry-Marc and Florence Mary. For many years the family lived above his office in Duke Street (pictured overleaf, where his Dent regulator, lot 92, hangs on the wall behind his desk). In 1858 he was diagnosed with Brights disease (nephritis), his health continued to fail and he suffered a stroke in 1859. He died ten days later on 15 September at the age of 53 and was buried alongside his father in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

An historically important oak month-going wall regulator

E.J. DENT, LONDON, NO. 674. CIRCA 1845

Details

An historically important oak month-going wall regulator
E.J. Dent, London, No. 674. Circa 1845
The 10¾in. diam. circular silvered regulator dial signed E.J. Dent, London. Clockmaker to the Queen No. 674 with typical layout having separate seconds and hour rings and sweep minutes, all hands of blued steel, the four pillar movement with maintaining power and high-count train, the deadbeat escapement mounted on the backplate and having jewelled pallets and club-tooth 'scape wheel, the two-piece Continental-type crutchpiece with fine beat adjustment, the mercury-cased steel pendulum suspended from the backboard on a gilt bracket and with silvered calibrated beat-scale below, the steel suspension T-bar secured by a bracket with four screws, the backplate similarly signed and secured to a further bracket anchored to the backboard, the case with detachable front section with locking clasps behind the backboard, the glazed front having a typical Dent winding
54 in. (137.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, thence by family descent
Sold in these rooms June 1994

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Brunel purchased this regulator in about 1845 towards the height of his career. Given his short but illustrious horological education, one can imagine that Brunel gave considerable thought to his choice of regulator. The fact that he chose one by Dent was almost certainly because in 1843 Dent had taken over from Arnold as Breguet's London agent. The family history relates that Brunel had a hand in designing part of the movement - indeed the escapement, with external deadbeat and two-piece crutch are of very definite French influence. The simplistic, almost minimal design of the case, combined with the precision quality of the movement would have appealed enormously to the Great Engineer. In many respects it reflects the extraordinary personality and immense creative genius of its original illustrious owner

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