Soho Sophistication

William Carpenter was at work as a London Clock and Watch Maker in the later eighteenth century.  He became free of the Clockmakers Company in 1781.  Roger Smith has suggested that Carpenter lived from circa 1727-1803¹.  However, other sources indicate that he was working until at least 1818².   From the same sources his premises are given as: 

45 Frith Street (Soho) 1778-84

15 Frith Street 1790-5; (this could be a misreading from a handwritten source of ‘45’)

10 St. Martin’s Court 1798-1812

5 Haberdashers Walk (Hoxton) 1818 

Soho was a district in which a considerable number of French Huguenot refugee horologists/jewellers settled in the late seventeenth century³ and Roger Smith speculated that the Carpenter family name was perhaps originally, Charpentier.  Today Soho Square is the location of Christ Church - the only surviving Huguenot church in London.  

A reason to speculate that Carpenter may have had a French heritage is his frequent use of the Coach Watch ‘format’ and its associated continental characteristic of decorative complexity.  Reviewing 50 timepieces of this type recently catalogued on the Antiquorum site, the following analysis resulted: 

By Continental European makers                                  32      (64%)

By Continental makers working in London                       7      (14%)

By English makers                                                       11      (22%)

 

Of the Continental European makers, number French      14      (44%) 

Extant Coach Watches are not uncommon, especially as made in the period, 1740 – 1810, but examples can be seen from as early as the seventeenth century.  Intended to be hung in a prominent place within a coach or carriage, allowing all the passengers to readily see the time, these watches were typically in the size (diameter) range, 70mm-120mm.  As a means of distinguishing the operator’s firm (brand), with a connotation of character and quality, Coach Watches tended to complicated – often with 4 or 5 sub dials and repeating/alarm functions – and highly decorative, with extensive case engraving and enamelling/paste work. 

In cataloguing and analysing Carpenter’s production – here I am addressing watchmaking only, not clock manufacture – a helpful aspect is what appears to be an orderly, consistent run of movement numbers.  The lowest is 4040 and the highest 6074.  From this range I would conclude that Carpenter’s rate of manufacture never exceeded 100 per year, and, given the high degree of movement complication he favoured, was perhaps in some years considerably less. 

More of a challenge is the job of dating the watches.  Since the great majority of extant timepieces are housed in brass-based cases, hallmarking on a Carpenter watch is a rarity.  Cataloguers seem to apply ‘circa 1780’, ‘circa 1790’ and ‘circa 1795’ fairly indiscriminately. 

An advanced degree of complication is to be seen with the lower movement numbers – five metrics being evident with movement numbers, 4040, 4043 and 4053, seen left – right in the photographs below.  These three all have an outer, concentric minute track, with Arabic numerals at 5 minute intervals.  The four subsidiary dials are as follows:  at 12.00, hours, with Roman numerals; at 3.00, seconds, with Arabic numerals at 5 second intervals; at 6.00, jump ¼ seconds⁴; at 9.00, moon age. 

The cases of these ‘early’ watches feature engraved foliage and floral decoration.  On 4040 and 4043 the bezels are decorated with paste stones.  All three are approximately 80mm in diameter.  In each case both movement and dust cap are signed W^m Carpenter, London.

 

Courtesy of Cogs & Pieces; Sotheby’s; Auktionen Dr. Crott, Germany 

For comparison, here below is a Coach Watch of similar complexity by James Cox.  The functionality is very much the same, except that one fifth jump seconds are measured as opposed to the quarters on the Carpenter versions.  Cox was primarily a goldsmith, but became a notable trade entrepreneur, developing a substantial horological goods business in the Far East markets.  He twice shrugged off bankruptcy and established a team of craftsmen to make clocks, watches and items of jewellery, marketed under his name.  This gilt metal case is big – 125mm - and is covered with shagreen skin.  It dates from circa 1775, the movement number being 8042:

 

Courtesy of Sotheby’s 

The case style seen for Carpenter’s early Coach Watches is evident in this Clock Watch, to which he assigned number, 4560.  From the dial it might be thought that it is much simpler.  However, features include Quarter (bell) Strike and stoppable Centre Seconds.  It is significantly smaller at 54mm diameter:

 

Courtesy of Antiquorum Auctioneers

Probably of very similar date is movement number 4580 which incorporates an alarm.  The dial is more like the early examples, but there are three as opposed to four sub-dials – indicating hours, seconds and alarm set time. 

 

Courtesy of Auktionen Dr. Crott, Germany 

In a further variation of the Coach Watch format, Carpenter made use of a large aperture in the dial in order to display the balance, which was accordingly treated to a decorative gilt finish.  Examples are movement numbers, 4633 and 4644.  These are a little smaller than the earliest Carpenter Coach Watches, being 70mm/74mm in diameter.  Both have pair cases engraved with foliar forms and have enamel polychromatic paintings on their backs.  There is no concentric index, but functions/sub-dials, clockwise from the 12.00 position are: hours, (Roman numerals); minutes, (Arabic numerals at 5 minute intervals); seconds, (Arabic numerals at 10 second intervals); jump quarter seconds; regulation; moon age.  A band of alternating-colour paste stones surrounds the balance-sight aperture, the stones being red/green in 4633 and red/blue in 4644.

 

4633 – Courtesy of Antiquorum Auctioneers

 

4644 – Courtesy of Antiquorum Auctioneers 

Details of extant watches are given in the table below.  In this I have indicated the date attributed by the various source cataloguers – inconsistencies are immediately apparent as the watches are listed in movement number order. 

Date	Number	Type	Description	Notes
C1780	4040	5 dial verge Coach Watch	Gilt/brass pair cased watch with paste set bezel with alternating red and clear stones;  Diam – 81mm	Hands are not original.  Item #590 on Cogs & Pieces, January 2016
C1794	4043	5 dial verge Coach Watch	Gilt/brass pair cased watch with paste set bezel with alternating green and clear stones.  Engraved foliage and floral decoration to the band; outer case with engraved foliage and floral decoration to both bands; Diam - 80mm	Sold by Sotheby’s 2012 – Treasures of the Qing Court, for £9,375
C1795	4053	5 dial verge Coach Watch	Gilt/brass pair cased watch.  Engraved foliage and floral decoration to the band; outer case with engraved foliage and floral decoration to both bands; Diam - 82mm	Lot 324 on Dr Crott auction 89US
C1790	4531	Decorative Pocket Watch	Gilt metal and enamelled triple cased automaton watch with concealed erotic scene.  Centre-seconds and stop feature	Sold by Antiquorum 2001 for : 14,375 CHF
C1790	4560	Quarter-striking, two-train verge Clockwatch with centre-seconds and stop feature	Gilt metal and paste-set with red stones case. Gold ovoid hands.  Striking the hours and quarters on a bell in the back of the case. Diam - 54 mm	Sold by Antiquorum 2008.  for 7,800 CHF
C1800	4579	Twin dial verge Coach Watch with aperture giving sight of an erotic animated painting	Gilt metal and paste-set with red and white stones case.  Dial is decorated with a polychromatic painting of a shepherdess and her sheep by a river. Diam - 79mm	Offered by Teadway Toomey auctions, 6 Feb 2016; estimated at $8,000 - $12,000
C1795	4580	4 dial verge Coach Watch with alarm	Gilt/brass pair cased watch.  Engraved foliage and floral decoration to the band; outer case with engraved foliage and floral decoration to both bands; Diam - 87mm	Lot 93 on Dr Crott auction 92US
C1780	4628	Twin dial verge	Gilt/brass with a goutte outer case.  Polychromatic painted dial.  Diam – 60mm	Lot 108 on Dr Crott auction 83
C1790	4633	Multi dial pair cased verge Coach Watch	Gilt metal and enamel painting with aperture in dial showing red/green paste-set balance.  Gold arrow hands. Diam – 74mm	Sold by Antiquorum 2013 for 31,250 CHF
C1790	4644	Multi dial pair cased verge Coach Watch	Gilt metal and Limoges style enamel painting – including portrait of Marie Antoinette with aperture in dial showing red/green paste-set balance.  Gold arrow hands. Diam – 70mm	Sold by Antiquorum 2013 for 20,000 CHF
	4724	Multi dial pair cased verge	Gilt/brass.  Aperture in dial showing balance.  Diam – 60mm	Outer case, bezel and hands (except minute) missing.  In The British Museum, but not on display
C1780	6074	Cylinder Pocket Watch	Gold pair cased watch with ‘Turkish’ dial. Gold beetle and poker hands	Offered, not sold by Antiquorum in 1994

From these examples it is evident that Carpenter was a stylish, highly skilled watchmaker.  His clocks also were complicated, highly decorative and, accordingly, successful in the Indian, Turkish and Chinese export markets.  The V & A Museum in London holds one of his musical automaton clocks which can be seen in action in a short video found at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/video-a-musical-automaton-clock/ .

It is a pity that there was apparently no son to carry on the Carpenter business – one imagines that such would have been a very fine maker in the early nineteenth century era of the Chronometer.

_________________________________________________________________

1.            Roger Smith, Antiquarian Horology - ‘SOME MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CRAFTSMEN, GRAY & VULLIAMY OUTWORKERS AND SUPPLIERS c.1760’, Vol 29, no 3. March 2006.  Page 354.  Also Johnstone’s London Commercial Guide and Street Directory, May 1818 – Carpenter recorded as at 5 Haberdashers’ Walk.  In my opinion it is likely that Carpenter was born around 1740.

 

2.            Clutton/Baillie/Ilbert, Britten’s, Old Clocks & Watches and their Makers, 1982. Methuen. London. Page 394.

3.            British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp158-165

4.            For a better understanding of the jump seconds function, the Horological Journal featured an excellent article in the October 2015 issue, ‘Independent-Train Watches and Jump Quarter-Seconds’, by Philip W. Kuchel.

 

William Carpenter

I am starting to research the eighteenth century English maker, William Carpenter.  His work features some wonderful exercises in complication, including ornate musical clocks and four dial watches; as usual I will be focussing on the watches. 

In ‘SOME MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CRAFTSMEN, GRAY & VULLIAMY OUTWORKERS AND SUPPLIERS c.1760’, by Roger Smith, Antiquarian Horology, Vol 29, no 3, the list includes: 

Carpinter (sic), Mr.  Watch maker Little Kings Street, St Ann's, at Mr Planches* a jeweller - Probably an early reference to the well-known clock and watch maker, William Carpenter (or Charpentier (c. 1727-1803), who moved to Frith St, Soho, as a householder from 1766 (Rates).  * Peter Anthony Planche, lived in King St Soho from 1758-64 (Rates). 

I’m having some difficulty with Carpenter’s biographical details.  Although lifespan dates are given above, Baillie and other sources suggest that he was working until at least 1817.

 

If anyone has any information about Carpenter I’d very grateful if you’d advise it to me. 

Meanwhile, to indicate why Carpenter is well worth close study, here is an example of his output:

 

Courtesy of Auktionen Dr Crott

 

This timepiece, #4053, circa 1795, would be classified as a ‘coach watch’, being 82mm in diameter.  Like much of his production, it was made for the Chinese market – one eager for complication and ornate decoration.  In effect this watch has five dials, measuring: Hours, minutes, seconds, jump ¼ seconds and moon age.  For a better understanding of the jump seconds function, the Horological Journal featured an excellent article in the October 2015 issue, ‘Independent-Train Watches and Jump Quarter-Seconds’, by Philip W. Kuchel.

William Rogers of Liverpool

A very elegant complicated pocket watch by William Rogers of Liverpool is currently on sale in London.

Courtesy of Sotheby’s 

It is an 18ct yellow gold open-faced quarter repeater with calendar.  The three quarter gilt plate lever movement is numbered 3807.  It features a diamond endstone. There are subsidiary dials for: seconds; day; date; month. The hallmarks are for Chester, 1862.  The case maker's mark is GR, (probably George Roberts of Liverpool).  Diameter is 55 mm. 

It has a very unusual feature in its repeater mechanism – the speed with which the gongs are struck is adjustable by the user by means of a lever on the top plate. 

The watch is of an ambitious specification given that Rogers would have been just eighteen or nineteen at the time of its manufacture. 

Extant examples of watches by Rogers are hard to find – I have identified only three so far.  As to clocks – just one.  But what a one!  Sold by Bonhams in 2008 for £16,800, a very impressive quarter chiming skeleton clock – see https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16226/lot/72/

William Rogers was born in 1842 and died in 1898.  Born in Liverpool, he grew up in Manchester, returning to Merseyside as an adult.  He was married to Ellen for over thirty years.  They had seven children – of these two were daughters and both died in childhood.  None of the sons seems to have followed William into the watchmaking trade. 

The family lived in the West Derby/Kensington area of Liverpool - in 1871 they were in Emlyn Street and by 1881 had moved to Boaler Street, (see photograph below):

 

(For an excellent selection of photographs of old Liverpool, please see: http://www.liverpoolpicturebook.com - source of all location photographs in this post).

By 1891, they had moved again, this time to no. 29 Kensington; the photograph, below is of no. 27, (in 1955):

 

Rogers had business premises at 19 Castle Street, Liverpool.  Other nineteenth century watchmakers based in Castle Street/South Castle Street included: Joseph Sewill, Owen Owens, John Moncas, John R Cameron, Henry Daniel, Simpson Samuell, Moses Chapman, Lewis Woolf, Richard Hornby.

 

 

The other two Rogers watches I have found are: 

#11312 - 18ct gold open face lever, hallmarked London 1881.  Jewelled gilt three quarter plate movement with bi-metal split compensation balance.  Subsidiary seconds dial.  Case also numbered 11312 with maker's mark JM, (possibly Joseph Moore).  Diameter 50 mm.  Movement signed William Rogers, 19 Castle Street, Liverpool.  Sold for £1,140 inc. premium, May 2010. 

#21026 - 18 ct gold half hunter table roller lever, hallmarked Chester 1874.  Gilt three quarter plate keyless movement with going barrel.  Compensation balance with freesprung blue steel overcoil hairspring. English table roller lever escapement, screwed in jewelling, escape and lever pivots with endstones.  Plain case with maker’s mark RO, (possibly Richard Oliver).  Diameter 56 mm. 

If you have details or a photograph of a William Rogers watch do please post a comment.

Of Orbits and Tangents

Tangents are a hazard – actually a great source of pleasure – for anyone researching the history of horology. 

Looking in detail into the Ellicott dynasty, I was especially struck by the beauty of the dial of John Jnr’s Equation of Time watch, circa 1747:

 

© Trustees of the British Museum

Equation of Time ? WHAT is that; I thought I knew, but the dial confused me, so I looked it up:

 

Tangent! 

Two factors cause the true length of a day on Earth to vary: 

·         The path of Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical

·         Earth’s axis is slanted  

As a result, it is sometimes more, and sometimes less, than 24 hours between successive noons.  Surprisingly, it is only exactly 24 hours four times a year: 15 April; 14 June; 1 September; 24 December. 

In considering this, the following terms are used: 

·         Mean Time – time measured by a man-made device and expressed consistently – i.e. a day is always 24 hours long

·         Solar Time – a solar day is the variable length of time between noon on day-one and noon on day-two

·         Sidereal Time – the same principle as solar time, but the measurement is made relative to the position of a specific star on two successive days 

A Solar Time day can be as much as approximately 14 minutes more or less than 24 hours Mean Time. 

The ‘Equation of Time’ on any given day is the value – i.e. number of minutes, plus or minus – to apply to the Mean Time in order to ‘read’ Solar Time. 

A practical benefit – admittedly more relevant in the eighteenth century – is that an Equation of Time clock or watch can be set by reference to a sun dial. 

Because the variances – and the four ’24 hour’ day dates – are the same every year, a mechanical complication can be added to a clock or watch to provide an indication of the Equation of Time.  The indicating hand is driven by a once-a-year revolving cam. 

To me a complication like this is just something to be enjoyed for its technical and aesthetic attributes, although some people seem to be overly concerned with what practical use it might have.  In the eighteenth century, as watches with this feature began to appear, ownership would surely have been a serious status indicator. 

Equally, the capability to make such a watch would have been a powerful achievement to boast, raising the maker’s reputation and ability to command higher prices for his products.  It’s not surprising therefore that John Ellicott Jnr was keen to have his name on Equation of Time watches.  Whilst his father had begun the firm and made it one of high standing, John Jnr greatly enhanced its reputation and profitability through innovation.  For instance, he introduced cylinder escapement watches to the Ellicott catalogue and ensured that it also included repeaters and chronographs.  Alongside his flair for commerciality, John Jnr was also innovative in developing temperature compensation solutions. 

But . . . the question has to be asked: did Ellicott actually have the in-house capability to make an Equation of Time watch? 

Tangent! 

Antiquarian Horology published two extensive surveys of the Ellicott firm:  by R.K. Foulkes, September 1960 and by David Thompson, June/September 1997.  In the latter a list of ‘known’ watches is appended.  At its heading it includes an abbreviation reference of ‘eq’ for an ‘equation watch’.  Interestingly, the list – of no less than 199 watches - does not feature a single one of the ‘eq’ type. 

David Thompson writes that three Ellicott Equation of Time watches are extant.  Further: 

Each of the three watches has a high quality movement with cylinder escapement and all are furnished with bolt and shutter maintaining power.  It is possible they represent the earliest examples of a watch with any form of maintaining power. 

The question of authorship of these watches was the subject of an article by Anthony Turner and Andrew Crisford in Antiquarian Horology in 1977.  The characteristics in the design and construction of the movements leave little doubt that they are the work of Thomas Mudge. 

The Turner/Crisford article relates the story of an Equation of Time watch signed by Ellicott and supplied to Ferdinand VI of Spain which became in need of repair.  When it emerged that the Ellicott firm itself could not undertake this, the King’s clockmaker, Irishman, Michael Smith, identified Thomas Mudge as the actual maker. 

My view of this is that whilst Mudge was the more technically accomplished, Ellicott was the more successful marketeer, able to penetrate niche markets and capture high profile clients.