CHARLES MACDOWALL, WAKEFIELD. A RARE WILLIAM IV MONTH DURATION PATENT HELIX LEVER SKELETON CLOCK CIRCA 1840 the elegant thick brass frames unified by four knopped baluster pillars screwed to the plates, the front plate having a silvered Roman chapter ring fronting a month duration chain driven fusee movement with unusual helical gearing on three wheels and a deadbeat escape wheel, the pyramid-shaped brass pendulum with adjustable suspension and regulating brass bob run on a steel crutch coming through a curved aperture on the backplate; mounted on the original ebonised square moulded base under a tapering metal framed arched glass case.

29.5cm high

Charles MacDowall was apparently the first in England to produce a series of clocks using this system of gearing. Although the great mechanical advantages of helical gearing were widely known by all those working within the engineering fields, clockmakers tended to rely on the traditional methods because of the great difficulty in making the helical shaped wheels and pinions to the necessary tolerances. MacDowall ingeniously retooled and created a line of high-quality skeleton clocks, all seemingly different, which took advantage of this method of gearing.

Charles MacDowall is listed in Britten’s as working 1835-1872.