Charles Wieland, London No.11

Fine 8-day chronometer by this little known maker with interesting provenance. Circa 1845,

Case

3-piece brass-cornered mahogany box, the middle section with the added trade label for the chronometer maker D McGregor & Co, 72 South Castle Street, Liverpool - such labels were often added at the time of cleaning and servicing.

Dial

Elegant silvered dial signed Charles Wieland Commercial Road LONDON 11 with sector up/down and distinctive open-spade hour hand.

Movement

Eight-day double-frame fusee movement with diamond cap jewels on balance and escape pivots. Earnshaw-type escapement, the footed detent with gold passing-spring. Compensation balance with early use of round weights, with additional timing screws and nuts. 9-turn blued-steel helical balance-spring.

Box approx 8 inches (20cm) square

Little is known about Charles Wieland working at 12 Warkworth Terrace, Commercial Road, in the Limehouse district of London's docklands from around 1830 onwards. No 11, is the earliest known by him, his 8-day chronometer No 13 being fitted with a balance by Eiffe and which is dated on the movement 1846. Few others are known, all bearing much higher serial numbers: 705, 752 and 788, the latter coming 17th in the 1853 Greenwich Trials. Daniels also records a 'six Months Timekeeper' in the Sir David Salomons Collection at the L A Mayer Memorial Institute in Jerusalem. Wieland took out Patent No 2386 in October 1858 for a novel form of auxiliary balance. He is known to have worked until around 1876.

Provenance; By repute formerly owned by Capt Wood, Portsoy, Banff. The published list of Maritime losses in Scottish Water by Ian G Whittaker records four ships as being lost or wrecked near Portsoy between 1851 and 1860, their Captain being named as Wood.