AN EDWARDIAN YEAR-GOING CARVED MAHOGANY WALL REGULATOR
Lot 212 THE PROPERTY OF A COLLECTOR

AN EDWARDIAN YEAR-GOING CARVED MAHOGANY WALL REGULATOR

DENT, ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON, NO. 55724. CIRCA 1910

Closed17 March 2011

Price Realised

GBP 37,250

More Information

How to sell

AN EDWARDIAN YEAR-GOING CARVED MAHOGANY WALL REGULATOR
DENT, ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON, NO. 55724. CIRCA 1910
CASE: the solid mahogany backboard with heavy iron hanging plate, detachable fully glazed case, the base terminating with acanthus-carved mahogany volute carved, removable back panels concealing large rectangular lead weight DIAL: 11 in. diameter silvered dial of regulator format signed 'DENT/MAKER TO THE KING 61. STRAND/& 4. ROYAL. EXCHANGE/LONDON 55742', blued steel hands MOVEMENT: mounted on substantial cast brass bracket, the damascened plates joined by four tapering pillars, Harrison's maintaining power to the barrel, indirect power supply via further twin barrels joined by a steel shaft from the year-going lead weight, jewelled pallets to dead beat escapement, pallets and escape wheel mounted on the back plate; Buckney-type zinc and steel pendulum suspended from a cast brass bracket, winding key, year-going lead weight, two steel wall hanging brackets
87 in. (221 cm.) high; 16¾ in. (42.5 cm.) wide; 11½ in. (29 cm.) deep

Sotheby's London, 17 December 1998, lot 260.

Specialist note

Year duration clocks are rare and have challenged the ingenuity of clockmakers for centuries. Perhaps the most the most famous example is the silver-mounted spring clock made by Thomas Tompion for William III, now in the British Museum. See also a year skeleton clock by John Pace (lot 129).
Along with details of the present example Roberts illustrates three further closely related year regulators. He notes that he has records of five such clocks and suggests that only ten or twelve were ever made by Dent. Of those known he suggests that the earliest dates from c.1865 and the latest (this example) from c.1909.