AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING GEORGE III WEIGHT-DRIVEN CENTRE-SECONDS REGULATOR MOVEMENT AND DIAL JOHN HACKINGS, POSSIBLY FOR PROFESSOR LUDLAM, CIRCA 1760 The large diameter four-knopped pillar movement with thick plates measuring 5.5 by 4.375 inches enclosing three-wheel train with six spoke wheel crossings, with deadbeat escapement for regulation by a seconds pendulum and a second rope pulley fitted with ratchet winding click to facilitate Huygens type endless rope winding, the backplate with substantial backcock over long crutch, the 6.5 inch square single-sheet engraved silvered brass dial inscribed in copperplate script John Hackings, Fecit over aperture for the Roman numeral hour ring to the upper part of the centre above subsidiary minutes dial beneath to the lower, the outer seconds ring with Arabic five-second annotations and delicate foliate scroll engraved infill to spandrel areas, mounted on a mahogany seatboard, (lacking pendulum and weight). 16.5cm (6.5ins) square, 12.5cm (5ins) deep excluding seatboard. Provenance: The beneficiary of the Estate of a private collector; purchased at Bonhams, London, sale of Fine Clocks 12th December 2012 (lot 154) for £2,500 (including pendulum, weight and housed in a later oak case). John Hackings is recorded in Britten, F.J. BRITTEN'S Old Clocks & Watches AND THEIR MAKERS as being the successor to 'Henry Haines' (possibly Henry Haynes of Daventry who is recorded in Loomes, Brian Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World, Volume 2 as working circa 1753). Britten notes that Hackings worked for Professor Ludlam who, in 1759, wrote 'has worked for me constantly since mid-summer 1753; all my best tools were made by him; whatever has been done by him can be depended on.'. The Rev. William Ludlam was Professor of Mathematics at St. John's College, Cambridge who was appointed by the Board of Longitude as one of the six assessors to examine and report on John Harrison's marine timekeepers. Ludlam was born in Leicester in 1717 and, after a distinguished scholastic career retired there in 1768; he died in 1788. The present movement is described and illustrated in Hooper, John and Darken, Jeff English 30 Hour Clocks, Origin & Development, 1600-1800 pages 193-5. Within their description Hooper and Darken note that the front bush for the centre seconds arbor is removable, and that the hour ring is driven by a twelve-pointed star-wheel (positioned between the dial and the movement frontplate) pivoted concentric with the centre arbor. They close their entry by adding that it 'is interesting to speculate that Hacking made this journeyman's regulator for Ludlam'. This possibility is perhaps supported by the existence of a thirty-hour longcase clock with the engraved inscription MADE, under the Direction of W. LUDLAM M.A., by JOHN HACKINGS:, for Mr. James Priest, 1759 to the backplate, which is described and illustrated in Robinson, Tom The LONGCASE CLOCK pages 295-8.
AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING GEORGE III WEIGHT-DRIVEN CENTRE-SECONDS REGULATOR MOVEMENT AND DIAL JOHN HACKINGS, POSSIBLY FOR PROFESSOR LUDLAM, CIRCA 1760 The large diameter four-knopped pillar movement with thick plates measuring 5.5 by 4.375 inches enclosing three-wheel train with six spoke wheel crossings, with deadbeat escapement for regulation by a seconds pendulum and a second rope pulley fitted with ratchet winding click to facilitate Huygens type endless rope winding, the backplate with substantial backcock over long crutch, the 6.5 inch square single-sheet engraved silvered brass dial inscribed in copperplate script John Hackings, Fecit over aperture for the Roman numeral hour ring to the upper part of the centre above subsidiary minutes dial beneath to the lower, the outer seconds ring with Arabic five-second annotations and delicate foliate scroll engraved infill to spandrel areas, mounted on a mahogany seatboard, (lacking pendulum and weight). 16.5cm (6.5ins) square, 12.5cm (5ins) deep excluding seatboard. Provenance: The beneficiary of the Estate of a private collector; purchased at Bonhams, London, sale of Fine Clocks 12th December 2012 (lot 154) for £2,500 (including pendulum, weight and housed in a later oak case). John Hackings is recorded in Britten, F.J. BRITTEN'S Old Clocks & Watches AND THEIR MAKERS as being the successor to 'Henry Haines' (possibly Henry Haynes of Daventry who is recorded in Loomes, Brian Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World, Volume 2 as working circa 1753). Britten notes that Hackings worked for Professor Ludlam who, in 1759, wrote 'has worked for me constantly since mid-summer 1753; all my best tools were made by him; whatever has been done by him can be depended on.'. The Rev. William Ludlam was Professor of Mathematics at St. John's College, Cambridge who was appointed by the Board of Longitude as one of the six assessors to examine and report on John Harrison's marine timekeepers. Ludlam was born in Leicester in 1717 and, after a distinguished scholastic career retired there in 1768; he died in 1788. The present movement is described and illustrated in Hooper, John and Darken, Jeff English 30 Hour Clocks, Origin & Development, 1600-1800 pages 193-5. Within their description Hooper and Darken note that the front bush for the centre seconds arbor is removable, and that the hour ring is driven by a twelve-pointed star-wheel (positioned between the dial and the movement frontplate) pivoted concentric with the centre arbor. They close their entry by adding that it 'is interesting to speculate that Hacking made this journeyman's regulator for Ludlam'. This possibility is perhaps supported by the existence of a thirty-hour longcase clock with the engraved inscription MADE, under the Direction of W. LUDLAM M.A., by JOHN HACKINGS:, for Mr. James Priest, 1759 to the backplate, which is described and illustrated in Robinson, Tom The LONGCASE CLOCK pages 295-8.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
