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A silver pair-cased rack lever…
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Melbourne
Date:
22-Oct-2024
Lot No.
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Description:
A silver pair-cased rack lever pocket watch, maker John Wood English Circa 1820 5 cm diameter, 6.7 cm high, 5.7 cm case diameter. A silver pair-cased rack lever pocket watch, maker John Wood. English Circa 1820. Silver pair-cased watch. The outer case and inner box plain, both bearing Chester hallmarks. for 1820-21 and case-maker's mark 'NL', probably Nicholas Lee, noted by Jackson as a watch-case maker. His first mention is in 1796 and his latest in 1817. White enamel dial, large black Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial. Gold hands, large. flat pendant, stirrup bow. Fusee drive, rack lever escapement. Solid chased cock with a basket of flowers, the foot bearing the word 'patent'. Diamond end stone, three-arm steel balance. Plain circular pillars. Modest fusee stop. Signed on the backplate 'John Wood, No. 3316, Liverpool'. There is a lever protruding under the dial at 7 o'clock that enables the movement of the watch. to be stopped by bringing the lever to rest: a form of stopwatch. Brass dust cover. Reference: John Wood is listed in Britten as being in Liverpool from 1796 to 1824. A diagram of a rack-lever escapement is shown in figure 19 on page 151 of Brittens 'Old Clocks. and Watches and their Makers' (9th edition). The rack-lever, according to Clutton and Daniels, was invented by the Abbe de Hautefeuille in 1722. This contained the seeds of the lever. escapement, although it is not known whether Mudge was indebted to it for the idea of the. detached lever escapement, and it did not come into general use until after 1791, when a. considerably altered form of it was patented by the Liverpool maker Pe~er Litherland. The first. Lancashire (Liverpool is in Lancashire) lever watches were rack-levers, made in increasing. numbers during the early 19th century. The pioneer of this revival was Peter Litherland who. took out his first patent in 1791; but whether he was aware of the Abbe de Hautfeuille's form. of escapement is not known. Despite their non-detachment, the Lancashire rack-lever. performed surprisingly well when well made, which some of them were. All had flat steel. balances, and a very few had compensation curbs. The lever was laid out tangentially to the. escape wheel. Provenance: Purchased from Max Cohen, Dornoch Terrace, Highgate Hill, Brisbane in about 1970. Dimensions: 5 cm diameter, 6.7 cm high, 5.7 cm case diameter
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified