Current issue of Antiquarian Horology

Volume 46, Issue 3, September 2025

On the front cover: A view from the clock tower in Rouen. Photo Thomas Muff. The Gros Horologe in Rouen was on the itinerary of the AHS Study Tour to Northern France and Belgium, undertaken in May this year and reported in the section AHS News in this issue.

This issue contains the following articles:

Art and symbols on monastic clocks of Mount Athos
by Spiridion Azzopardi (pp. 318-340)
Summary: This article explores the meaning of art and symbols on clocks of the Greek monastic state of Mount Athos. The main focus is on one particular symbol, the hexafoil. The discussion includes brass lantern clocks, longcase clocks and turret clocks, as well as the monastic buildings themselves.

Belgian carillons in UK clock towers. Part 1
by Darlah Thomas (pp. 341-355)
Summary: This article began as a talk delivered at the Turret Clock Forum at the School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University on 23 October 2024. The day’s theme was ‘the face and voice of the clock’, i.e. dials and bells. Since that day, more information has come to light which has extended the content. The article centres on the carillons of bells which were imported from Belgium and the newly developed carillon machine manufactured by Gillett and Bland from 1867–8 in projects in the UK: three for churches and one for a private setting. These were ‘of their time’ and suffered from criticism and circumstances to such an extent that only one project has remained intact. In common with many new technologies, subsequent innovations have enabled their legacy — the use of this genre as symbols of peace has seen the installation of many peace towers and war memorials housing carillons throughout the world.

Time in Biscuit Town
by James Nye (pp. 356-362)
Summary: Photographing the evocative stone relief of three camels above the entrance to Peek House, for use on a Christmas card, led to researching the commitment of the London biscuit manufactury of Peek Frean to precision and modernity, reflected in both mechanical and electric clock systems. Its Drummond Road clock tower served not only as a practical marker of time but also as a symbol of identity for the factory and its surrounding community.

A remarkable correspondence
by Andrew King (pp. 363-369)
Summary: This article offers an introduction to the correspondence between Colonel Humphrey Quill (1897–1987), the biographer of John Harrison (John Harrison the Man who found Longitude, John Baker 1966) and John Martin (1895–1978), local historian of Barrow upon Humber. The series of ninety-eight letters extending to more than 500 autograph pages, both sides of a correspondence over a period of twenty years, 1957–1977, reveals, for the first time, the extensive research into John Harrison and his family life in Barrow upon Humber in the early years of the eighteenth century before Harrison moved to London to further his life’s work in the development of marine timekeepers.

Museum profile: The Frick Collection
by Bob Frishman (pp. 370-376) (Read this article here)

‘Unfreezing Time #23’ by Patricia Fara (pp. 377-379) (Read the whole series of articles here)

The issue totals 148 pages and is illustrated mainly in colour, and is completed by the regular sections Horological News, Unfreezing Time, Notes from the Librarian, Book reviews, AHS News, Letters and Further Reading.