James McCabe No.447. An engraved gilt-brass eight-day desk chronometer, London, circa 1856

An Important English Private Collection

James McCabe No.447. An engraved gilt-brass eight-day desk chronometer, London, circa 1856

4¾-inch silvered dial signed and numbered James McCabe, Royal Exchange,London, No.447, large diameter subsidiary seconds dial at VI and state-of-wind dial beneath XII, finely pierced blued steel fleur-de-lys hands, the chain fusee movement with maintaining power, Earnshaw's spring detent escapement mounted on a sub-frame and with cut bimetallic balance and free-sprung blued steel helical spring with terminal curves, signed and numbered on the backplate Jas. McCabe, Royal Exchange, London, No.447, the glazed bowl mounted in an elaborate pierced and foliate engraved gimbal with a trunnion-style setting, the waisted supports with mirror-backed and glazed silvered panels engraved with the monogram and arms of Henry Fraser Walter, the heavily cast stand inset with a bevelled mirror, the whole finely chased and engraved with leaves and flowers

20cm by 25cm by 20.5cm; 8in by 9¾in by 8in