BERNARD RUDKIN HENNESSY, SWANSEA. CIRCA 1860

Details

A Victorian mahogany longcase regulator with skeletonised dial
Bernard Rudkin Hennessy, Swansea. Circa 1860
The hood with stepped and moulded flat top and chamfered front angles, the trunk with conforming throat mouldings and angles and with glazed panel, on stepped plinth with quatreform moulded panel and on moulded feet, the silvered and skeletonised regulator dial signed on the minute ring Hennessy Swansea, with subsidiary seconds and hour rings, blued steel hands, the 'Lépine calibre' movement housed within a brass drum case with the dial screwed to four substantial pillars and the high count train with six crossings and pivoted on to brass brackets with massive screws on the back plate, the barrel also skeletonised and with six spokes, with Vulliamy type deadbeat escapement with jewelled pallets, Harrison's maintaining power with curved steel arm, the steel rod and decagonal glass mercury jar pendulum suspended from the rear of the movement case, with densely engraved brass work and blued steel pointer, silvered calibration nut, swinging against a silvered beat scale on the back plate; brass pulley with six crossings and brass weight, with original(?) mahogany crank key
6ft.5in. (1.96m.) high

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Bernard Rudkin Hennessy was the son of an Irishman who opened a small academy in Swansea in 1840. He was apprenticed to a John Jenkins and opened his own business in Wind Street, Swansea, in 1848. He continued trading until his retirement in 1875.
The high count train on this regulator employs 24 leaf pinions throughout. The count is: Great wheel - 288; Second wheel - 192 pinion 24; third wheel - 180 pinion 24; Escape wheel 30 pinion 24. The minute is 68:68, the hour is 12:144.

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