FINE ANTIQUE CLOCKS.
Tel.(01732)358986. Fax.(01732)771842.
To Contact us click here.
FINE ANTIQUE CLOCKS.
Tel.(01732)358986. Fax.(01732)771842.
To Contact us click
here.
|
31409C.R A superb English eight day regulator. The mahogany case with a curved roof top above a dentil moulding has unusually an opening bezel rather than an opening door. This appears to be a later alteration, perhaps due to warping of the door. The corners of the hood are canted with moulded capitals to the top and bottom. The trunk of the clock again has canted corners with similar moulded capitals to top and bottom and has a full length brass strung opening glazed door. The trunk splays out to the panelled base via a concave moulding and the finely chosen mahogany flame veneers are matched through the clock from top to bottom. The base, which has a single plinth, has an applied mould to the front to form a panel. The silvered brass regulator dial, now signed for the retailer ‘C. Taylor, Bristol.’ The signature has been put on top of a knocked out signature which was presumably Parkinson & Frodsham, London, the signature to be found on the backplate of the movement. The dial has the typical layout of a main minute ring with a seconds ring with observatory markings below 12 o’clock and a 24 hour hour ring above 6 o’clock. The clock at one stage has had an applied 12 hour hour ring fixed to the dial and that ring, together with the under dial wheel work that was required, have been kept and are with the clock. When this was done the original wheel work was obviously kept and has now been reinstated into the clock. The eight day weight driven regulator movement is of the very finest quality. It is of massive construction with six well shaped pillars. The wheel work is beautifully executed with high count and undercut pinions and six very fine crossings to each of the wheels. The clock has a jewelled deadbeat escapement with adjustable end stops throughout the train mounted on individual cocks. The plates are of an unusual shape and are shouldered in half way up. The clock has maintaining power and unusually stop work to the barrel. |
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| The crutch mechanism is of a sort we have not seen on
any other clock taking a form similar to Holme’s frictionless crutch
with a jointed crutch piece, but this is connected to the pendulum itself
via a very fine piece of spring wire. The movement is signed at the base
of the backplate for the maker, ‘Parkinson & Frodsham, London,’
and the whole movement is enclosed within intricately shaped dust covers
which are screwed to the plates with a large number of blued steel screws.
There is an additional shaped case to cover the protruding great wheel
which is very large.
The clock employs a most unusual and attractive mercury pendulum with an oval ribbed glass jar and a pendulum rod going through the middle of the jar. This beats against a silvered beat indicator fixed in the bottom of the case. Height: 75.75" (192.5 cms.) |
PARKINSON & FRODSHAM
The first of the clockmaking Frodshams was William who was born in 1728 and may have worked as a Journeyman for Justin Vulliamy.
In 1779 he took his son, William, into partnership and the business became William Frodsham & Son.
In 1801 William Frodsham, the elder, set up his grandson, William James, in business and in partnership with William Parkinson and thus was born Parkinson & Frodsham, one of the best known names in chronometer making.
William Frodsham (the son) died before his father in the 1805 and John Frodsham, his son, took his father’s place in the partnership.
Parkinson & Frodsham commenced business at 4 Change Alley, Cornhill where they remained until 1890.
William Parkinson died in 1842 and the business was continued by William James Frodsham who handed it over to his two sons, George and William, in 1847, the year that those sons were admitted to the Clockmakers’ Company. The business prospered over the years and they were as highly thought of during the time they were active as they are today. They exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, the Le Havre Exhibition in 1868, Calcutta in 1883 and again at Paris in 1889 and so as can be seen they were internationally renowned.
In addition to their address in Change Alley, Cornhill, Parkinson & Frodsham opened a branch in Liverpool in 1828 firstly at 54 Castle Street and then 38 Castle Street in 1828.
This business continued until 1858 when Henry Frodsham died. Thereafter, his wife continued the business in partnership with Robert Keen and in 1869 it was changed to Frodsham & Keen, the name which it kept until 1935 when it closed.
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