A rare oak cased Earth-driven electric longcase clock Bentley Manufacturing Company, Leicester, circa 1910 The visible skeletonised movement with six-spoke wheel crossings and rear mounted escape wheel with locking and impulse pallets linked to the steel rod pendulum with substantial brass encased coil oscillating over a fixed curved bar magnet and cylindrical bob to lower section and electrical switchgear mounted onto brackets signed EARTH DRIVEN ELECTRICAL CLOCK No.172, BENTLEY'S PATENT 19044/10, MFC'D LEICESTER ENGLAND to shaft, the 12 inch dial with silvered chapter ring and subsidiary seconds dial to the open centre, with full-height bevel arch glazed front door to the Arts & Crafts influence case with shaped crest and moulded cornice, on plinth base, 206cm high. Percival Arthur Bentley filed his patent (19044) on 13th August 1910. The clock was originally powered by an earth battery comprising a zinc and carbon couple buried in damp soil which provided approximately 1 volt at the terminals (the current lot contains a conversion box to enable the clock to be run from a standard D-sized cell). It is generally thought that no more than around 70 such clocks were ever made as the Company changed its production at the onset of the First World War. The scarcity of these clocks is further compounded by the fact that a consignment bound for the USA was lost with the sinking of the Titanic. The current lot was loaned to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Department of Science and Industry in 1959 where it remained until relatively recently. A file relating the history of the clock, including photographs of it in situ at the Museum, are included in the lot.
A rare oak cased Earth-driven electric longcase clock Bentley Manufacturing Company, Leicester, circa 1910 The visible skeletonised movement with six-spoke wheel crossings and rear mounted escape wheel with locking and impulse pallets linked to the steel rod pendulum with substantial brass encased coil oscillating over a fixed curved bar magnet and cylindrical bob to lower section and electrical switchgear mounted onto brackets signed EARTH DRIVEN ELECTRICAL CLOCK No.172, BENTLEY'S PATENT 19044/10, MFC'D LEICESTER ENGLAND to shaft, the 12 inch dial with silvered chapter ring and subsidiary seconds dial to the open centre, with full-height bevel arch glazed front door to the Arts & Crafts influence case with shaped crest and moulded cornice, on plinth base, 206cm high. Percival Arthur Bentley filed his patent (19044) on 13th August 1910. The clock was originally powered by an earth battery comprising a zinc and carbon couple buried in damp soil which provided approximately 1 volt at the terminals (the current lot contains a conversion box to enable the clock to be run from a standard D-sized cell). It is generally thought that no more than around 70 such clocks were ever made as the Company changed its production at the onset of the First World War. The scarcity of these clocks is further compounded by the fact that a consignment bound for the USA was lost with the sinking of the Titanic. The current lot was loaned to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Department of Science and Industry in 1959 where it remained until relatively recently. A file relating the history of the clock, including photographs of it in situ at the Museum, are included in the lot.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
