Main dial: gold apex corners, black background to strawberries and white flower. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: small fans, morning glory and gold leaf roses corners; shells and seaweed dial centre. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: fully-painted abbeys corners; fat pink roses and birds. False plate: sheet iron.
Main dial: cream-gold background to everything, roses, poppies in corners; corners fine painting of Durham Cathedral named in breakarch. False plate: sheet iron.
Images of dials made by William Francis, a Birmingham dial maker active in the 1810s–1830s.
Main dial: ladies of four continents, pale faces, artistically painted, delicate colours; gold band outside chapter ring. Hemispheres: maps, North America on right, ecliptic above equator. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: four continents corners, long faces. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: four seasons, funny faces. Hemispheres: gold pagodas. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: mid-blue background, brightly coloured four seasons ladies; gold band on outside chapter ring. Hemispheres: North America, ecliptic below equator. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: cream, castles with no background corners. Hemispheres: North America on right, ecliptic below equator. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: blue anemone, yellow tulips. Hemispheres: bird and vague worlds. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: off-white, bronze powder background four Apostles, gold band outside chapter ring. Hemispheres: North America on left. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: blue background, four Evangelists, well painted, gold band. Hemispheres: maps, North America on right, ecliptic above equator. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: cream, medium dull-blue background with a crudely painted strawberry; gold band outside chapter ring. Hemispheres: North America, ecliptic below equator. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: breakarch automata, shagreen centre, name in gold, fan corners. Originally rocking ship in breakarch; clockmakers changed this to two figurines, one with short axe. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: breakarch automata, shagreen centre, name in gold, fan corners. Originally rocking ship in breakarch; clockmakers changed this to two figurines, one with short axe. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: breakarch automata, shagreen centre, name in gold, fan corners. Originally rocking ship in breakarch; clockmakers changed this to two figurines, one with short axe. False plate: cast iron.
Moon faces: round-eyed, short pink nose, pink cheeks. Moon scenes: ship with odd sails at sea; landscape with cottage on bluff with lake.
Moon faces: round-eyed, red cheeks, pleasant expression. Moon scenes: ship at sea, bright sky; cottage with two figures.
Moon faces: prissy. Moon scenes: boat with sail; building with tower and corkscrew trees.
Moon faces: fat pink and red cheeks, full lower lips. Moon scenes: log-like ship, big sails; red-roofed cottage by road.
Moon faces: round-eyed, red cheeks and noses, cheerful. Moon scenes: small ship at sea; double cottage with tower.
Moon faces: staring eyes. Moon scenes: log-like ship; bright colours.
Moon faces: red cheeks and noses, wide eyes. Moon scenes: ship at sea; large building and two figures.
Moon faces: pop-eyed, red cheeked. Moon scenes: ship at sea; church by waterside.
Moon faces: pop-eyed, red cheeks and noses, tiny mouths. Moon scenes: ship at sea, heeled over; large white house by river.
Main dial: small downhill castles corners, fantastic ruined house.
Main dial: gold roses corners with yellow ochre band; shepherdess in breakarch. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: pale cream, anemones and tulips in corners, pigsticking in India in breakarch; probably inspired by print of the period. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: creamy, flowers in blue corners, other version of pig sticking in breakarch; very small pony.
Main dial: small downhill castles corners, fantastic ruined house.
Main dial: L-shaped corners with morning glories, tiny fans, romantic scene breakarch with white border.
Main dial: gold shells corners, swan, strawberries.
Main dial: no grommets, gold band.
Main dial: cream, shells in corners, tower with flag in centre.
Main dial: bright-blue background to floral corners, gold leaf corners, roses in corners. False plate: Francis W.
Main dial: off-white, flared tulips on gold corners with unusual border. False plate: cast iron.
Images of dials made by William Wood, a Birmingham dial maker active c1820.
Main dial: peacock feathers corners, heavy Arabic, tail on four, oblong; never seen this. Hemispheres: Hobson maps and moon dial. False plate: cast iron, W. Wood.
Main dial: fan and garland corner; bad blowtorch damage; heavy moon arch. Hemispheres: Hobson maps. False plate: separate slide of false plate. Rather rare dial maker, W.M. Wood, but Hobson maps.
Moon faces: exactly like Hobson moon faces. Moon scenes: castle; rather "peanut" ship at sea.
Slide not digitised.
Main dial: pink-faced four-seasons ladies, stiff foliage, scalloped gold band outside chapter ring. Hemispheres: odd maps, outside latitude numbers. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: slight blue-grey tone, moss and full roses corners impinge on chapter ring; girl with funny dog in high oval breakarch. False plate: cast iron.
Moon faces: pink-faced, round-eyed, small features. Moon scenes: ship at sea; landscape with lake, good foliage.
Main dial: blue-grey.
Main dial: off-white, fan corners with gold. Very bright small birds in centre. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: blue-grey, anemone and rose corners, gesso-framed two birds in centre. False plate: cast iron.
Main dial: blue-grey, anemone and rose corners, gesso-framed two birds in centre. False plate: cast iron.
Complete series of 25 cards, duplicates of those in the album.
Album containing the complete series of 25 cards. Purchased from The Good Olde Days shop in Brighton. Also includes a letter from the seller, a photocopy of "An Unusual Collection", an article about the cigarette cards published in Antique Clocks vol. 11 no. 10 (March 1989), and of a press cutting about books on sundials.
Original article about watchmaking precision and automation from The Engineer (18 June 1981), pp. 35–39.
Includes correspondence, copies of watch databases, transcripts and copies of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century newspapers, photocopies of journal articles, cutouts and photocopies of catalogue listings, and photographs.
Includes correspondence, copies of eighteenth-century newspapers, newspaper articles, sales brochures, cutouts and photocopies of catalogue listings, and photographs.
9 b/w captioned photographs and 4 postcards. Also includes handwritten notes.
Original article from Antique Collecting, vol. 23 no. 3 (July/August 1988), pp. 53–54.
4 b/w photographs, captioned in English. File also includes a typescript letter from the museum director and a seemingly unrelated postcard, written in French, from Musee du Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Paris.
Original article about an 18th–century long–case clock from Hazlemere from Collect (June 2002), p. 43.
Original article from The Antique Dealer and Collectors' Guide (November 1978), pp. 84–85.
Original article from The Antique Dealer and Collectors' Guide (December 1975), pp. 116–117.
Includes typewritten letter, a newspaper cutting with an article on the restoration of the tower, its English translations (handwritten and typed), and a photograph.