***a Regency Mahogany Regulator Signed John Thwaites, London

CIRCA 1810

Height: 96" Width: 12" Depth: 26"

Inventory Number 8182-119


Price

$110,000

Description

The silvered Roman dial signed “Jno. Thwaites, London”, with subsidiary seconds below the “XII”, blued steel hands, five pillar two train movement with Graham type deadbeat escapement, hour strike, strike/silent lever, set within a brass bound bonnet surmounted by a brass ball and spire finial; the highly figured, ebony line inlaid breakfront form case with elaborate volutes terminating in carved foliate roundels above the plinth base.

Additional Information

A regulator(or regulateur) is a very accurate clock by which other timepieces can be regulated and calibrated to the correct time. Most clock dealers would hold onto their regulators to ensure that their clocks ran within a few seconds of the correct time per month. As seen in the present example the pendulum was often enclosed in a highly decorated case with a full glass door.

JOHN THWAITES and his father, Aynsworth, had a thriving business which supplied many clockmakers with regulators. The firm took the name Thwaites and Reed in 1805. There is extensive evidence that they worked with and supplied goods/parts to some of the most prominent of all English clockmakers, including the Ellicotts.