The dial, dial plate and pillar plate are all numbered 1710, the back of the dial is punch-stamped DENT 1710. However the bowl is punch-stamped DENT 1760, the bezel is similarly scratch-marked and the box is named and numbered 1760. On 21 March 1842 Dent applied for a Patent (No. 9302) for the type of balance fitted to this chronometer: Vaudrey Mercer (John Edward Dent and His Successors) illustrates it in Plate 40(c) where it s described as "Flat rim, horizontal staple". The same balance is illustrated in Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum, Plate 163: Cat. no. 244 where it is described "Dent double N", Patent 9302 of 1842. The British Museum does not appear to have a chronometer with this type of balance in its collection. It must be assumed that a Dent marine chronometer so fitted is particularly rare; also the fact that, unusually, the frame, train wheels and balance are satin gilded suggests that this instrument may have been made for exhibition purposes. It can be dated 1842-1843.