A Victorian mahogany small size two-day marine chronometer

CHARLES FRODSHAM, NO. 1500; CIRCA 1846

Details

A Victorian mahogany small size two-day marine chronometer
Charles Frodsham, No. 1500; circa 1846
The silvered dial signed Charles Frodsham éleve de Parkinson & Frodsham London & Liverpool 1500, Roman hour numerals, outer minute chapter with Arabic five minute intermarkers 60-5-10 et seque, Breguet blued steel hour and minute hands, subsidiary seconds and up-and-down dials with blued steel hands, small size frame (65mm diam.) with baluster pillars and brass screws, Earnshaw escapement, cut bimetallic balance with segmental heat compensation weights, blued steel helical balance spring the top coil pinned to adjustable "gallows" cock, dovetail detent with jewelled locking stone to side of banking block, brass bowl with convex glass, gimballed in brass-bound three-tier mahogany box (possibly later top), the middle section with inset unsigned bone disc, flush brass handles.
83 mm dial diam., box 145 mm sq.

Lot Essay

Charles Frodsham was born in 1810, the third son of William James Frodsham of Parkinson & Frodsham the eminent and prolific 19th Century partnership of chronometer makers. Charles Frodsham was apprenticed to his father for seven years in 1824 (V. Mercer The Frodshams AHS 1981 pp. 22 & 76).
The statement on the dial that Charles Frodsham was the pupil of Parkinson & Frodsham is a particularly rare acknowledgement of his relationship to this partnership. Unlike the normal Parkinson & Frodsham chronometers this is not, and never has been, fitted with the internal drum protection cover assembly.
Behind the dial are the following scratch marks:
Charles Frodsham
Haswell
1500
Cleaned Feb 1907
Geo. Parkins S'port

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