Live Auction 7841500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe
Christie’s roundel
Lot 126

AN AMERICAN BRASS-BOUND AND MOUNTED ROSEWOOD TWO-DAY MARINE CHRONOMETER

H.H. HEINRICH, NEW YORK, NO. 609. CIRCA 1880

Closed29 April 2010

Price Realised

GBP 3,250

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AN AMERICAN BRASS-BOUND AND MOUNTED ROSEWOOD TWO-DAY MARINE CHRONOMETER
H.H. HEINRICH, NEW YORK, NO. 609. CIRCA 1880
CASE: three-tier box with brass drop handles, mother-of-pearl disc to front inscribed 'H.H. HEINRICH/102 FULTON ST./New York', square mother-of-pearl plaque below inscribed 'NO.609', brass bowl and gimbal DIAL: 100 mm. diameter silvered and engraved dial inscribed 'H.H. HEINRICH,/NEW YORK NO. 609,, with exposition medallions, subsidiary seconds and up/down dials, gold hands MOVEMENT: single chain fusee, Earnshaw's detent escapement to cut bimetallic balance with circular temperature compensation weights, blued steel helical balance spring, the pillar-plate punched 'KLINE & CO. NEW YORK U.S.A.' and '609'; tipsy winding key, case key
7½ in. (19 cm.) high; 6 7/8 in (17.5 cm.) wide; 7 in. (18 cm.) deep

Gil Margolis collection, Christie's London, 12 June 1996, lot 392.

Specialist note

H.H. Heinrich is recorded at 12 St John Street, New York (1884) and 102 Fulton Street (1896). A fine chronometer maker, he was born in Hamburg and retired in 1901, devoting his time to studying chronometry.
The punchmark 'KLINE & CO' on the pillar-plate is interesting. It has been accepted that such a punchmark on a marine chronometer indentifies the maker of the frames. With very few exceptions, the frames of chronometers with American names on the dial were not made in America. M. Whitney (The Ship's Chronometer, Ohio, 1985, p. 373) in his entry on Kline & Co. writes 'there is little evidence that Kline produced any chronometers'. This framemaker's punchmark suggests otherwise.