Antiquarian Horological Society

Overview

To give you a flavour of what to expect, here are some important features:

  

Chapter Plan
Chapter 1 charts the lives of all the key characters of the story (Frank and Robert Hope-Jones, George Bennett Bowell, William Hamilton Shortt and a variety of key employees). It covers the early history of the firm from the 1890s, through troubled times, world wars, involving the triumphs of precision timekeeping, factory expansion, the diversification of products, all the way through to the firm’s eventual demise, illustrated throughout with pictures of the key figures and places.

Chapters 2 to 5 chart the development of the Synchronome master clock through all its forms, variants and uses, profusely illustrated, with details of rare and unusual models. The chapters are divided as follows: 2 – The Years of Pioneering 1894–1905; 3 – The Years of Development 1905–1918; 4 – The Years of Achievement 1918–1960; and 5 – The Final Years 1960–1980.

Chapters 6 and 7 deal in detail with slave dials, their form and design, famous installations, and a variety of ancillary pieces of equipment produced by the firm, such as programmers, distribution boards, batteries, warning lamps and so forth.

Chapters 8 and 9 explore in detail the development of precision clocks by William Hamilton Shortt, and include extensive extracts from previously unpublished sources, as well as high resolution photographs of the prototype Shortt clock, No. 0, commissioned especially from the National Museums of Scotland for the book. Appendix 2 contains a detailed list of all known Shortt clocks, the detail of their order-book specification as well as original location and subsequent history where known.

Chapters 10 to 12 round off the story with an account of Synchronome’s involvement in the transmission of time by wireless, its adoption of the synchronous clock, and the development of marine clocks.

Chapter 13 will be invaluable to collectors and conservators since it gathers together crucial information on the repair, set-up and maintenance of Synchronome clocks and dials, again profusely illustrated with clearly labelled colour pictures and diagrams.

Appendix 1 provides dating charts that illustrate the progression of Synchronome designs, the various detailed elements of the clocks, and also the correlation between serial numbers and dates.

Appendix 2 provides a list and description of all 102 Shortt clocks.

Index containing over 2000 entries contributes to making this an invaluable and definitive account of the marque.

What it looks like
To give you an idea of the layout and content of some typical pages, click on each of the following thumbnail images to download a pdf of that page:

 

What is the cost?
The price is £50 for AHS members and £65 for non-members.
Additionally, mail order postage & packing is £11 for UK; £17 for Europe; £18 for Rest of the World surface mail; or £32 for Rest of the World airmail.

Ordering
To purchase on-line (through PayPal's secure servers), please click to select the correct price option from the drop-down menu and then click on the 'Add To Cart' button followed by the 'Checkout' process. The number of copies ordered can be changed in the 'View Cart' page. Alternatively, the book can be ordered through our Head Office at Ticehurst in the usual way.
Please note that as initial demand is expected to be very high, you should allow 14 days for delivery.

Purchase On-Line

Please select a price

Non Member + Postage Canada £104.00 GBP Non Member + Postage World Airmail £98.50 GBP Non Member + Postage World Surface Mail £85.00 GBP Non Member + Postage Europe £83.50 GBP Non Member + Postage UK £80.50 GBP AHS Member + Postage Canada £89.00 GBP AHS Member + Postage World Airmail £83.50 GBP AHS Member + Postage World Surface Mail £70.00 GBP AHS Member + Postage Europe £68.50 GBP AHS Member + Postage UK £65.50 GBP

Check out with the 'View Cart' button.

Ordering from Head Office
Non-members £65.00
PLUS Postage & Packing:- to UK £15.50: to EU £18.50: to World, Surface Mail £20 or Airmail £33.50: to Canada (weight over 2KG) £39

AHS Members £50.00
PLUS Postage & Packing:- to UK £15.50: to EU £18.50: to World, Surface Mail £20 or Airmail £33.50: to Canada (weight over 2KG) £39

Orders, together with the appropriate remittance, should be sent to:
AHS (Book Orders),
New House,
High Street,
Ticehurst,
East Sussex,
TN5 7AL.

or Telephone Tel 01580 200155, International +(44) 1580 200155 (24 Hour answering machine),
or Fax 01580 201323 International +(44) 1580 201323

Cheques should be made payable to "Antiquarian Horological Society".
Overseas members may make payment by Sterling draft on a London bank, or credit card (Access / Visa / Mastercard).
If paying by US Dollar cheques please add GBP8 to cover Bank charges.