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A fine Regency brass and ebony line-inlaid mahogany month-going longcase regulator with unusual temperature compensation

D. & W. MORICE, CORNHILL LONDON. THE MOVEMENT STAMPED HOLMDEN 1579. CIRCA 1810

Details

A fine Regency brass and ebony line-inlaid mahogany month-going longcase regulator with unusual temperature compensation
D. & W. Morice, Cornhill London. The movement stamped Holmden 1579. Circa 1810
The case with shallow breakarch top to the hood with ebony-lined quarter panels to the front and glazed doors to the sides with locks, the trunk with stop chamfered angles flanking the brass and ebony-lined glazed trunk door, the plinth with beaded panel and pad feet, circular silvered dial of regulator layout signed D.W. Morice, Cornhill, London, original blued steel hands, the movement with very long thick brass plates joined by six ring-turned conical pillars screwed to the front plate, inverted high count wheel train with six crossings to each wheel and maintaining power to the great wheel with stop work, the deadbeat escapement mounted at the base of the backplate with the escape wheel and anchor individually mounted within a pierced brass bridgecock, the anchor with jewelled pallets and delicate two-pin crutch with wood banking stops either side, fine beat adjustment, the pendulum with steel rod suspended from a brass block at the top of the backboard with temperature-adjustment from a brass rod running down the length of the backboard and resting on a cornelian block, the top of the backplate applied with an additional arched brass extension plate carrying the suspension spring block and with milled brass nut to the right side adjusting the plate from side to side giving fine beat adjustment; together with the original brass-cased oval weight and brass pulley with six crossings
6ft. 7¾in. (202cm.) high

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

The present regulator has a host of unusual and highly individual refinements. The inverted train means that the deadbeat pallets are at the base of the movement and the seconds and hours rings are reversed. Two makers, both of great repute; John Ellicott and George Margetts, were known to have made a regulator with an inverted train, possibly in a bid to achieve greater duration. The two unusual pierced brass bridges on the backplate, holding the escape wheel and pallets, are a unique and flamboyant method of showing the escapement off to its best effect. The front bracket securing the movement to the seatboard is stamped HOLMDEN 1579. George John Holmden of Clerkenwell was a specialist precision clockmaker. He is known to have supplied movements to a number of leading clockmakers including Benjamin Vulliamy and Thomas Earnshaw.
The method of temperature compensation employed on the present lot is most unusual. The brass rod running down the backboard terminates with a cornelian, or hard agate block; when the rod expands the cornelian block ensures the rod is pushed up, the top of the rod raises the pendulum which itself is conversely expanding, thus the two expansions are designed to cancel each other out.
The brass block at the top of the backplate is adjusted from side to side by means of a fine threaded screw - it is an ultra-fine method of beat adjustment.

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