James McCabe, London

An open-faced keyless pocket chronometer with up-and-down Indication, no. 04925, movement circa 1870, case hallmarked 1877

No reserve

Reserves

Lot Closed

September 16, 04:30 PM GMT

Estimate

1,700 - 2,600 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Masterworks of Time Collection

James McCabe, London

An open-faced keyless pocket chronometer with up-and-down Indication, no. 04925, movement circa 1870, case hallmarked 1877

• Movement: gilded ¾ plate, free-sprung, spring-detent escapement, blued steel helical spring, bi-metallic compensation balance with timing screws, diamond endstone, signed and numbered Jas. McCabe, Royal Exchange, London, 04925

• Dial: silvered, black Roman numerals, outer minute ring, subsidiary dials for seconds and up-and-down indication, blued steel hands, signed and numbered Jas. McCabe, Royal Exchange, London, 04925

• Case: associated 18ct gold plain polished case, the back centered with decoratively engraved blank cartouche, hallmarked Chester 1877, case maker's mark H.C. (possibly H.G.)incuse, plain polished gold cuvette with maker's mark F.T within an oval cartouche (possibly Frederick Trahern), gold pendant and bow

diameter 51mm

A concise history of the McCabe family by Paul Hackamack can be found in Antiquarian Horology, No. 3, Vol. 10, Summer 1977, pp. 308-316. James McCabe was born c. 1748 in Ireland near to Belfast and moved to London in 1775. The firm is recorded at Fleet Street, Cheapside and the Royal Exchange. In 1781, McCabe was made a Freeman of the Clockmakers’ Company, later becoming a Warden. James died in 1811 and the firm was continued by his youngest son Robert. Robert died in 1860 and, in turn, his eldest son, Robert Jeremy McCabe, continued the family business until he closed it in 1879/80. Robert Jeremy appears to have spent the remainder of his life as “a man of independent means” and died in 1902 [op. cit. p. 309].