Currently on offer at Pieces of Time is this beautiful multiple dial verge by Brockbank. The subsidiary dials provide Hours, Seconds, Moon-age and Day of Month. This degree of complexity and the case decoration are typical of a watch made in the late eighteenth century for export to the Far East. From the movement number it is safe to attribute a making date of 1786-90.
The Brockbank business was started by John in 1769 in Old Jewry, London. He took on his younger brother, Miles as his apprentice that same year.
The lives and work of the Brockbanks – including notable productivity, involvement in the Arnold/Earnshaw dispute, bankruptcy, sons and a nephew aspiring to maintain the name in watchmaking, etc. – are covered in an excellent article by A. D. Stewart, published in Antiquarian Horology, December 2015.
Courtesy of Pieces of Time
Access to this sort of in-depth (19 pages and many illustrations) article underpins the very good value for money provided by membership of the Antiquarian Horological Society. This is further enhanced by the addition to the resources available to members of the digitised archive of the Horological Journal from its first issue in 1858 to 2000. It’s well worth a visit to here for details of membership.
