WILLIAM SHEPHERD, NO. 253. CIRCA 1850

Details

A rare Victorian mahogany two-day marine chronometer with Hartnup's balance
William Shepherd, No. 253. Circa 1850
The silvered dial signed and numbered Wm. Shepherd 13 Bath St. LIVERPOOL 253, Roman hour numerals outer minutes chapter with Arabic five minute intermarkers 60-5-10 et seque, gold hour and minute hands, subsidiary seconds and up-and-down dials with blued steel hands, Earnshaw escapement, large Hartnup balance (4.5 mm. diam.), blued steel helical balance spring, spring foot detent with jewelled locking stone, brass bowl and gimbal, brass-bound three-tier mahogany box the centre section with inset bone ivory disc inscribed WM. SHEPHERD 13 BATH STREET 253 LIVERPOOL, external brass drop handles
90 mm. dial diam., 170 mm. box

Provenance

Sold Christie's, London, 2 July 1997, lot 51

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

William Shepherd is recorded at 13 Bath Street, Liverpool 1848-1852. John Hartnup, the designer of this handsome balance, was superintendant of the Liverpool Observatory and being acutely aware of the problems caused by middle temperature error designed his balance, circa 1847 which was constructed with the assistance of William Shepherd. Hartnup apparently refused to patent the balance and in fact publicised it in the June 1849 issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Other chronometer makers such as Charles Frodsham (1810-1871) and Thadeus Winnerl (1799-1886) experimented with the design but being an expensive and complicated balance to make it was only used in very small numbers.

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