At
the same time as the decline of the English watchmaking trade was progressing, two major
exhibitions were mounted in London extolling the quality of British commercial
enterprise. This was certainly
appropriate in regard to the manufacture of chronometers in London, but, as far
as more mundane pocket watches were concerned, the wares displayed by many of
the exhibitors had been made on the
continental mainland. Thus the Great
Exhibition of 1851 and the International Exhibition of 1862, tended to represent
British horological excellence increasingly in the form of retailing, rather
than of manufacturing, expertise.
The
Great Exhibition, 1851, (Crystal Palace):
© Victoria and Albert
Museum, London
The
event is well summarised in the V&A’s website, here.
Horological
exhibits are listed in the Catalogue in the section, ‘Class 10. Philosophical,
Musical, Horological, and Surgical Instruments.’ 47 entries relate to makers/vendors of pocket
watches/chronometers, including:
1. Bennett, J. 65 Cheapside,
Inv and Manu. . . . Marine chronometer.
Bennett’s model watch, on a magnified scale; constructed to show the
most compact form of the modern watch, with all the recent improvements. For more on Bennett, see The Old Watchword,
post November 2015, here.
John
Bennett was born in 1814. His parents,
John and Elizabeth were watchmakers, living and working in Greenwich. John Jnr carried on after their deaths,
moving to the City in 1846 with premises at 65 Cheapside. He eventually expanded these by taking over
no. 64 and also had a presence at 62 Cornhill.
The business was successful and Bennett further elevated his status by
becoming a councillor in the 1860s and a sheriff in 1871. He was knighted in 1872.
Bennett’s
business was attuned to the prevailing conditions with considerable savvy. He sought to cut manufacturing costs as a
response to the erosion of English makers’ market share resulting from the
price competitiveness of Swiss imports, (which he decried), yet he had no
compunction about utilising Swiss movements himself in his products. Equally, he was energetic in his approach to
marketing, his press advertising being especially prolific, for example:
19. Delolme, H. 48
Rathbone Pl. Oxford St. Des. And Manu. – Gold watches, manufactured entirely in
England. Stethometer. Marine chronometer. I completed a study of Delolme’s life and
work in February 2018. Notice the
difference in approach to the imports issue from that of Bennett whereby
Delolme seeks to make an unconditional virtue of the fact that his products are,
‘manufactured entirely in England.’
Delolme
did not however create his watches in London from scratch. He utilised rough movements sourced from the
Prescot (Lancashire) manufactories. The London
Daily News, 15 September 1851, reported Delolme’s exhibits as follows:
Mr. Delom (sic), of 48
Rathbone-place, exhibits a handsome collection of watches, containing many
improvements in construction, the result of his long scientific
experience. By dispensing with the fusee
he obtains more room for the other works, and is thus enabled to comply with
the present taste for flat watches without any sacrifice of strength or
durability. The duty of the fusee in
regulating the inequality of the mainspring is performed by an ingenious
contrivance which he very learnedly calls an ‘isochrone pendulum spring’ – this
sonorous epithet being the only part of his work which is not entirely of
English manufacture.
Notice
that Delolme lacked Bennett’s assertive marketing instinct – with modesty he
refers to his prices as being, ‘comparatively moderate.’ His work though could be superlative, as seen,
for example, in this Marine chronometer, #850, (c-1857):
Courtesy of Ben Wright
Clocks
34. Barraud &
Lund, 41 Cornhill, Inv and Manu – Marine chronometer with a model of a
newly-invented compensation–balance.
Common marine chronometer. Small
gold pocket chronometer.
A
fully illustrated overview of the firms involving members of the Barraud family
over their long period of commercial activity – from c1840 through to the
twentieth century – is provided here.
Barraud
Marine chronometers were of especially good quality and a considerable number
were purchased by the Admiralty. The
auxiliary compensation invention referred to in the Exhibition Catalogue text
was unusual in that it was based simply on a weight affecting the balance
wheel.
Shown
below is a pocket chronometer, #3/127, (1869):
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
35. Parkinson &
Frodsham, 4 Change Alley, Cornhill, Manu – Astronomical clock, with mercurial
pendulum, eight-day chronometer, lever watches, pocket chronometers, &c.
The
highly respected partnership of William Parkinson and William Frodsham was
established at 4 Change Alley in 1801 and was located there until 1842. The business remained active, at Budge Row
until 1947 – now that is longevity!
William
Frodsham became an eminent spokesman for the English watchmaking trade – a natural
development from his fulfilment of the role of Master of the Worshipful Company
of Clockmakers in 1837/8. In 1842
Frodsham was a leading opponent of the proposed British Watch and Clockmaking
Company, by which Pierre Frederic Ingold intended to establish modern factory-model
manufacturing as a means of making English products price-competitive with Swiss
imports.
The
Frodsham family became one of the very most important in British horological
history. William’s son, Charles, was
already a successful maker in his own right by the time of the Great Exhibition,
at which he was awarded a first class medal, his entry in the Catalogue reading:
57. Frodsham, C. 84
Strand, Manu. – Astronomical clock.
Marine chronometers. Gold pocket
chronometers and lever watches. The double rotary escapement. Day of the month watch. Specimen of gold lever watches, with the
split-centre second’s-hand movement.
Railway watches. Portable chime
and other clocks, &c.
Charles
Frodsham & Co Ltd trades contemporarily and on its website claims to be ‘the longest continuously trading firm of chronometer
manufacturers in the world . . .’
Charles became every bit as influential as his father, and followed him
as Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers.
Charles
was just one of William’s four sons, the others being, Henry, George and John,
and they, and their descendants, forged careers in the Trade, helping to
establish several firms: Frodsham & Co., G. E. Frodsham, Frodsham &
Baker, Frodsham & Keen, Arnold & Frodsham.
This
a typically fine deck watch by Parkinson & Frodsham, #4436, (c-1856):
Courtesy of Auktionen
Dr. Crott
55. Dent, E. J. 61
Strand, 33 Cockspur St. and 34 Royal Exchange, Manu. – Large assortment of
ladies and gentlemen’s superior watches.
Marine chronometer, with a glass balance-spring, glass balance, and
compensation, for variation of temperature, of platina and silver. Azimuth and altitude compass. Dipleidscope.
Astronomical and other clocks, &c.
Edward
John Dent, though not its original inventor, developed the dipleidoscope for
practical use and patented it in 1843.
It is a device which supports the accurate setting of timepieces by
observation of the position of the sun or moon.
As might readily be imagined, complex instructions were necessary, and
Dent wrote a detailed user’s manual:
Dent’s
business and more conventional – and very fine – products are covered in the
2015 post here, and here. His Marine chronometers were considered to be
first class. This example, dating from
c-1850 is #2254:
Courtesy of FJ &
RD Story Antique Clocks
5. Watkins, A. Inv. And
Manu. – Eight day self-acting repeating chronometer, comprising 200 pieces of
mechanism. Small three-quarter plate
chronometers, with hard cylindrical springs, jewelled in every hole.
My
study of Watkins was published in the April and May 2016 issues of Clocks Magazine. I have also featured his work here in the 2016
posts, here, and here.
In
a future post here I will look at some of the watchmakers represented at the
1862 International Exhibition.
