THOMAS COLE, LONDON, NO. 1330 - 0, RETAILED BY C.F. HANCOCK. CIRCA 1850

細節

A Victorian engraved gilt-brass desk timepiece with calendar
Thomas Cole, London, No. 1330 - 0, retailed by C.F. Hancock. Circa 1850
The imposing case flanked by pilasters finely engraved with scrolling foliage, flowerheads and fruit and signed at the bottom of the right pilaster THOs COLE, the semi-circular base with casters to the back, with calendar adjustment slide also to the rear, the front engraved with scrolling foliage on a hatched ground and centred by a semi-circular glazed and recessed silvered aperture engraved with formal strapwork on a hatched ground and with further window displaying the manually adjustable day and date, the pediment surmounted by a finely pierced and engraved Royal coat of arms, the dial within a hexagonal gilt-metal glazed bezel, the silvered dial engraved with formal stapwork, with painted Roman chapter ring and blued steel hands, signed C.F. HANCOCK LONDON within a small oval reserve at the base, the going barrel movement with hexagonal gilt plates with four pillars secured by blued steel screws, steel three-arm balance to the lever escapement, the backplate signed THOS COLE LONDON, the rear cover with wind, hand-set and regulation apertures and engraved at the top C.F. HANCOCK 39, Bruton St. Bond St. LONDON: Jeweller and Silversmith to the Queen, the reverse of the lower rear moulding punch-numbered 1330 - 0
16½ in. (42 cm.) high, 11½ (29 cm.) wide, 6½ in. (16.5 cm.) deep

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

Thomas Cole was born in 1800 the son of James and Catherine Cole of Nether Stowey in Somerset. His father was thought to have been a clockmaker, which may explain how Thomas and his elder brother, James Ferguson Cole, were introduced to the trade. Both were immensely talented but their apprenticeship is a mystery with much speculation about the possibility of them having studied under the great French clockmaker Abraham Louis Breguet (d. 1823).

The two brothers formed a partnership in 1821 and by the next year had begun to produce a small series of highly complicated silver hump-back travelling clocks. The hump-back carriage clock was originally designed and made fashionable by Breguet ten years earlier, lending support to the Cole brothers' theoretical apprenticeship. These carriage clocks were amongst the most complicated pieces being made in England at the time and Thomas Cole was then just twenty-two years old.

By 1835 the brothers had gone their separate ways; Thomas's first wife had died and he married again in 1841 and later had two sons and a daughter. By 1845 he called himself A designer and maker of ornamental clocks and he began to make the now famous and popular series of exceptional quality clocks that appealed enormously to the nouveau riche Victorians and are now avidly sought-after and collected.