A Victorian walnut year-going longcase regulator with calendar, the narrow case on skirted plinth with glazed rectangular trunk door flanked by turned ¾ columns, similar columns to the hood with applied foliate carving, the 11in. by 12¼in. engraved silvered dial signed William Schoof, London with Roman and Arabic chapters, the centre with subsidiary rings for seconds, day of the week and day of month, blued spade hands, the substantial movement with shaped plates and high count train, pin-wheel escapement with spring suspended steel -rod pendulum with calibrated rating nut, the pully with twin steel arms for large brass weights

Details

A Victorian walnut year-going longcase regulator with calendar, the narrow case on skirted plinth with glazed rectangular trunk door flanked by turned ¾ columns, similar columns to the hood with applied foliate carving, the 11in. by 12¼in. engraved silvered dial signed William Schoof, London with Roman and Arabic chapters, the centre with subsidiary rings for seconds, day of the week and day of month, blued spade hands, the substantial movement with shaped plates and high count train, pin-wheel escapement with spring suspended steel -rod pendulum with calibrated rating nut, the pully with twin steel arms for large brass weights
6ft.11in. (211cm.)

Lot Essay

William George Schoof, 1830-1901, a great advocate of the lever escapement's superiority over the spring detent. His paper in the Horological Journal on the lever escapement suggested several improvements that would place it ahead of the detent escapement. In 1883 he submitted his chronometer to the Greenwich trials and obtained the position of 54th. out of 83. Commander Gould in the Marine Chronometer wrote 'Schoof was a man of the Harrison type, a trained watchmaker and a clever man of business, but a rule-of-thumb mechanic'. The Schoof chronometer (No. 6059) is preserved by the Admiralty for it's horological interest.

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