THOMAS MERCER, NO. 1. 1980

Details

An English eight-day gilt-brass exhibition chronometer clock
Thomas Mercer, No. 1. 1980
The movement within gilt-brass movement plates, chain fusee and spring barrel, the fourth and 'scape wheels within jewelled chatons, Earnshaw-type spring detent escapement with jewelled locking stone, cut bimetallic balance with cylindrical heat compensation weights and steel helical spring, the partially skeletonised silvered Roman chapter ring signed THOS. MERCER ST. ALBANS No. 1 with eccentric subsidiary dials for seconds and up-and-down (0 to 8), blued steel hands, the horizontal movement mounted within a cylindrical glass revolving case on a gilt rectangular plinth applied with a silvered plaque engraved Thomas Mercer ST. ALBANS. ENGLAND
5 in. (13 cm.) high, 11½ in. (29.5 cm.) long, the plinth

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

ILLUSTRATED:
Tony Mercer, Mercer Chronometers, Mayfield, 2003, p.85, figs. & 3/53

The concept of being able to demonstrate a chronometer escapement, the movement and the dials all packaged in a revolving crystal cylinder was ingenious and aesthetically very pleasing. Today, thanks in part to the modern complicated wristwatch market, there is renewed interest in escapements and escapement models. However in the early 1980s there was sadly very little interest in this clever timepiece and Mercers made only six examples of these extraordinary clocks.

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