THE ILBERT COLLECTION Michael Inchbald’s uncle Courtenay Adrian Ilbert (1888-1956) formed one of the greatest horological collections of the 20th century. It comprised some 2,300 watches, 210 clocks and 40 marine chronometers. He began collecting clocks and watches whilst still at Eton and after retiring from his engineering career in the early 1930s devoted most of his life to his pursuit of horology. The Antiquarian Horological Society was founded in his dining room at Stanley House on 1st October 1953. The vast majority of the collection was catalogued for auction at Christie’s in 1958. Predominantly as a result of a generous donation, the sale was cancelled and the collection acquired by the British Museum, where it has received international acclaim ever since. Some sixty years later his name is still much revered in horological circles and his authority on the subject has seldom been surpassed. The following four lots and the brass ring dial (lot 26) were retained by the family and inherited by Michael Inchbald at Stanley House.

A REGENCY BRASS-INLAID MAHOGANY LONGCASE REGULATOR

VULLIAMY, LONDON, CIRCA 1820, THE CASE BY T.N.LOWTHER

Details

A REGENCY BRASS-INLAID MAHOGANY LONGCASE REGULATOR
VULLIAMY, LONDON, CIRCA 1820, THE CASE BY T.N.LOWTHER
CASE: of stepped rectangular section with brass mouldings and line inlay overall, the sliding hood with hinged convex glazed bezel, rectangular glazed aperture to trunk door, stepped plinth to foot, stamped twice to the top of each side panel ‘T.N. LOWTHER’, DIAL: the 12 inch silvered dial of good gauge with Arabic five minute markers to the border, subsidiary seconds to the top and hours below, inscribed ‘Vulliamy Pall Mall London’ to the centre MOVEMENT: the eight-day movement with shuttered plates joined by six robust cylindrical pillars secured by polished steel ‘tommy-bar’ bolts, the steel escape wheel mounted to the backplate, with Harrison’s maintaining power, wheels with six crossings, all pivots jewelled and with enclosed endstones, jewelled pallets, the crutch with beat adjustments, the weight pulley with six crossings and steel endplates to the pivots, brass cylindrical weight, with billet steel mercury jar pendulum
75 in. (190.5 cm.) high; 16.3/4 in. (42.5 cm.) wide; 10.1/4 in. (26 cm.) deep
Together with a framed letter to 'Mr Vulliamy, Clock Maker, Pall Mall, London' from Lord Cowper, dated April 25 1789, regarding the delivery of another clock and 'that it has been greatly admired by every body'.

Provenance

Courtenay A. Ilbert (1888-1956) and by descent to Michael Inchbald.

Literature

'The Ilbert Collection', Watchmaker, Jeweller & Silversmith, March 1952, pp. 66-70.
R.W. Symonds, A History of English Clocks, London, 1947, p. 71.

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Lot Essay

The case is stamped twice by Thomas Lowther, a case maker working at 14 Clerkenwell Close and later at 42 Red Lion Street Clerkenwell, London, circa 1807-1832. Lowther is listed amongst the crafsmen used by Vulliamy and recorded in the remaining Day Books (Public Records Office files C/104 57 and 58) (Francis Wadsworth 'Some Early 19th Century Workmen', Antiquarian Horology, vol. XIX, no. 4, pp. 401-412.)

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