Furniture, Clocks & Works of Art

Property from the Curwen collections at Workington Hall, Ewanrigg Hall and Belle Isle, Cumbria

A George III mahogany tavern timepiece, Monkhouse, Carlisle, circa 1790

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Auction Closed

November 9, 01:23 PM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Curwen collections at Workington Hall, Ewanrigg Hall and Belle Isle, Cumbria

A George III mahogany tavern timepiece, Monkhouse, Carlisle, circa 1790

13½-inch silvered dial with subsidiary seconds dial, signed Monkhouse, Carlisle, the movement with tapered plates, knopped pillars, anchor escapement with Harrison's maintaining power, high count train, the separately suspended seconds pendulum with unusual rod and weight compensation, the case with drum hood and tear-drop trunk inlaid with stringing and paterae

128cm high

It is not easy to establish the exact maker of this interesting tavern timepiece as there appears to have been a Monkhouse dynasty of clockmakers in Carlisle. Those most likely to have been involved with this particular timepiece are James Monkhouse, who is recorded as working between circa 1750 and his death in 1793, and his son, also James, who died in 1827. This might explain the lack of forename in the signature.

The temperature compensation to the pendulum rod is most unusual and involves a second similar rod, tensioned by a weight and designed to directly compensate for fluctuations in pendulum pength due to changes in temperature.