A rare and important collection of James Ferguson Cole papers

A book of exceptional hand written and drawn notes by James Ferguson Cole for a treatise on watch making and a Daguerreotype of James Ferguson Cole.  For full listing please contact the department.

Mentioned as lost as of 1940 in Thomas Cole and Victorian Clockmaking, JB Hawkins, Antique Collectors Club, 1975, page 9. Detailed description of the papers in Its About Time, Chamberlain, the Holland Press Ltd, 1964. Please note that not all the papers listed in this book are in this collection.

 

JAMES FERGUSON COLE "the English Breguet," 1798-1880

Born in Somerset and named after the inspirational 18th century Scottish born artist, author and lecturer on science, James came to London with his brother, Thomas, early in his working life. Thomas, becoming as famous a clockmaker/engraver as James was a watchmaker, died in 1863.

James' first Patent was taken out in 1821, for a type of Pivoted-detent, after which his inventive mind and consummate workmanship carried him to the very top of the London trade. During the 1820's he made a series of wonderful 'hump-back' carriage clocks with various refinements including perpetual calendar, grande and petit sonnerie and sunrise and sunset indication. Most are now in prominent public and private collections, including the British Museum.

It is, however, for his watches that James' is chiefly known, many of which are fitted with various different escapements, including his 'resilient' and 'repellent' lever escapements. He continued to design and make watches of the very highest quality and with unique features throughout his working life. Rather than follow his English contemporaries, much of James' output shows the obvious inspiration of the work of Breguet,  the best of which can stand any comparison with the Paris based firm. Unlike the work of Breguet, however, Cole's ouput was very small.

As well as his work at the bench, James was an early Vice-President of the British Horological Institute (founded in 1858) and contributed a 'Treatise on Isochronism' that was published in the Horological Journal but it is to be regretted that the planned work as a whole "A Work on Horology - Theoretical and Practical" was never completed. Notes and illustrations for the work, passing on James' death to his son of the same name, was given as a gift to Major Paul Chamberlain in 1924, as recounted in the latter's book It's About Time; since when, and until now, they had vanished and been presumed lost.

As a testament of the fertile and inventive mind of one of London's leading watchmakers, these papers can be rightly considered a major discovery, not least the survival of the only known portrait of "the English Breguet"