- 68
George Margetts, London
Estimate
50,000 - 60,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- A RARE GILT BRASS TIMEPIECE WITH ARNOLD-TYPE PIVOTED DETENT ESCAPEMENT AND SIDEREAL TIME INDICATION1782, NO. 316
- gilt brass
- diameter 115 mm
• gilt full plate movement engraved with swags, foliage and trophies of war, chased and engraved balance cock fixed with two screws, Arnold-type pivoted detent escapement, engraved gilt-brass three-arm balance, flat steel spring, adjustable bi-metallic compensation curb, friction rollers to the top and bottom balance pivots, fusee with Harrison's maintaining power • white enamel dial, three subsidiary fixed dials and three rotating dials showing hours, minutes and seconds, mean solar time being indicated by the fixed dials and sidereal time against the inner dials which contra rotate • engraved gilt brass case mounted on a nineteenth century stand made in the manner of Thomas Cole with mirrored panel to the base • dial signed, movement signed and numbered
Literature
Terence Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1970, pl. 173
Catalogue Note
Margetts no. 316, is the only known pivoted detent chronometer escapement recorded by Margetts. It appears to date to 1782 or 1783, and is thought to have been supplied by John Arnold, just before he and Thomas Earnshaw introduced the spring detent escapement. For a further description of the movement and its use of friction rollers to the top and bottom balance pivots, see Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1971, pp. 282-283, pl. 173.
George Margetts (1748-1808) was born in Oxfordshire and was made free of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1779. He was elected to the Livery of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1799. Though little is known about his life, short of the belief that he died in an insane asylum, he remains remembered for his astronomical watches and eight-day chronometers.
Margetts, was a petitioner to the Board of Longitude on several occasions, with the goal to secure funds for his various projects that related to finding Longitude and improvements in astronomy. The Board did grant him some funding as did the East India Company. The latter he supplied with tables to assist navigators. For further information on Margetts, see Anthony G. Randall, The Time Museum Catalogue of Marine Chronometers, pp.234-240. For a further note on this maker see lot 68.
George Margetts (1748-1808) was born in Oxfordshire and was made free of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1779. He was elected to the Livery of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1799. Though little is known about his life, short of the belief that he died in an insane asylum, he remains remembered for his astronomical watches and eight-day chronometers.
Margetts, was a petitioner to the Board of Longitude on several occasions, with the goal to secure funds for his various projects that related to finding Longitude and improvements in astronomy. The Board did grant him some funding as did the East India Company. The latter he supplied with tables to assist navigators. For further information on Margetts, see Anthony G. Randall, The Time Museum Catalogue of Marine Chronometers, pp.234-240. For a further note on this maker see lot 68.