Current issue of Antiquarian Horology

Volume 46, Issue 2, June 2025

On the front cover: Detail of the Clock of the Creation of the World. Photo © Musée du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Thierry Ollivier. The clock is illustrated full-page on page 249.

This issue contains the following articles:

The Vindication of Mr. Symon Douw. The alleged infringement of Salomon Coster’s pendulum patent
by Wim Borgdorff, (pages 165-182)
Summary: The author’s investigation into his Claude Pascal Hague clock (Plomp - D151) led to an exploration of its historical context and the patent dispute between Coster and Huygens against Symon Douw. In the The Hague City Archives, the original manuscript ‘Akte der Demonstratie’ of the ‘Hof van Holland, Zeeland en West-Friesland’ (The Court), dated 9 and 10 October 1658, was discovered. A transcript of this document is published here in an English translation, and the dispute is described and evaluated.

The Harlows of Ashbourne — from small-town clockmakers to major movement manufacturers
by John A. Robey, (pages 183-199)
Summary: This article describes the rise of Samuel Harlow from a typical small-town clockmaker, watchmaker and jeweller in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, from about 1772. He became one of the most important manufacturers of longcase clock movements and clock castings in Britain, with a warehouse in Birmingham. His son Robert continued the business, followed by his widow Amelia, then her sons Benjamin and, for a short time, William, until it was sold to the Davenport family who continued into the twentieth century.

From man to machine: the history of the winding of the Great Clock of Westminster,
by Keith Scobie-Youngs, (pages 200-215)
Summary: This article is closely adapted from the script delivered as the Dingwall Beloe Lecture on 2 November 2023 at the British Museum. As part of the Elizabeth Tower project completed between 2017 and 2023, Keith Scobie-Youngs and his team from the Cumbria Clock Company worked with colleagues from the Westminster Palace clock team to restore and conserve the Great Clock, commonly known as Big Ben. An important element in this project was the decision to restore to working order an extraordinarily complicated and sophisticated automatic winding system, first installed just before the Great War, and which had fallen into disrepair. In his lecture, Keith charted both the challenges and the triumphs associated with this element of the larger project. (Read this article here)

Identification of the effect of humidity on chronometer rate: A belated response to George Daniels
by Matěj Bělín, (pages 216-226)
Summary: Speaking on 23 June 1990 at the American Watchmakers’ Institute’s 30th Anniversary, George Daniels said: ‘I am sure that many of the small variations in rate found in some of the Hamilton chronometers were due to change in humidity, which nobody ever bothered to record.’ This paper provides empirical support to the quoted claim but also finds an important role for air pressure.

John Jefferys and the Jefferies clock
by Jonathan Betts, (pages 227-236)

Summary: For horologists, the name of John Jefferys (c.1703–1754) will invariably be associated with the great pioneer of the chronometer, John Harrison (1693–1776). It was Jefferys who was commissioned by Harrison to make the now celebrated experimental pocket watch, dated 1753, which, with its unexpectedly excellent performance, inspired Harrison to change course in his timekeeper design and concentrate on developing a smaller timekeeper for the longitude. The making of the watch was however not the first professional connection between the two makers, and this article looks at a unique regulator which was the result of an earlier association.

A lifelong companion
by James Nye (pages 237-242)
Summary: Clocks rarely turn up with fully researched histories attached, but SJ Bean Clocks recently sold a longcase clock with a marvellous documentary provenance, and I am very grateful for being allowed to use it. A bundle of documents kept in the case reveal a deep and lifelong relationship between the clock and a former owner. I am also grateful to Dr Adrian Hodge for providing information about the family, and some relevant and highly evocative photographs.

Versailles: Science and Splendour, (pages 243-249)

Note: Moll Flanders and the art of stealing watches
by Peter de Clercq, (pages 252-254)

‘Unfreezing Time #22’ by Patricia Fara (pages 250-251) (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.