Few private horological collections survive intact from the 19th century. The fully catalogued collection of clocks and watches by Rev. Henry Leonard Nelthropp FSA was made initially without the benefit of any reference books. The extensive collection of 260 items was presented to the Clockmakers’ Museum in 1894 and is a fascinating insight into the mind of a pioneering private collector.
Reverend Henry Nelthropp FSA (1820 – 1901) began his career as a curate in Bristol. He then served as Chaplain to the British Legation in Switzerland but after receiving an inheritance, retired to London. From 1854, he had indulged in his fascination for horology and had begun to collect. He built up a remarkable knowledge of his subject, although few reference books were available to him. After receiving an inheritance, Nelthropp focused on collecting clocks and watches with historical significance, particularly those from the 17th and 18th centuries. His collection included examples of all types of British and European clockmaking and scientific instruments, including a variety of longcase clocks, bracket clocks, early pocket watches, hour glasses, astrolabes, celestial globes amongst other horological items.
Drum shaped clock by an unknown maker, Germany, 1525-1550. The Clockmakers’ Museum/Clarissa Bruce © The Clockmakers’ Charity
This is one of the earliest pieces in the Nelthropp collection. A drum shaped clock by an unknown maker in Germany made between 1525-1550. It has an engraved gilt-metal canister case, the side engraved with figures of three soldiers and scrolled foliage, and cover engraved with foliage and the bust of a German lady, surrounded by the number 1581. The gilt dial with engraved central sun and hour figures I-XII and 13-24, each with a ‘touch’ pin. The movement is made from iron with three wheels, a characteristic long fusee and verge escapement with balance. This watch-like clock was likely to have been made by a locksmith or armourer. The small balls, or ‘touch-pins’, found at each hour, were intended as a guide to the finger in the dark to learn the time by touch.
Nelthropp was well known for his work in numismatics, but his interest in timepieces reflected his fascination with craftsmanship and precision, much like his interest in ancient coins. Collecting clocks and watches, particularly antique and historically significant ones, was a popular pursuit among intellectuals and scholars during the 19th century, and Nelthropp’s collection was a testament to this interest in horology.
Marine Timekeeper known as ‘H5′ by John Harrison and Son 1770 in its original mahogany box with silk cushion. The Clockmakers’ Museum/Clarissa Bruce © The Clockmakers’ Charity
Nelthropp developed a great respect for a number of contemporary London makers, in particular George Blackie and Samuel Atkins. In 1873 he wrote A Treatise on Watch-Work, Past and Present (link to full text here). This profusely illustrated weighty tome of 324 pages, starts with a section on the definitions of words and terms used in Watch-work and the tools required for Watch-work. It then delves into the story of Time and a historical summary to the end of the fifteenth century.
A Treatise on Watch-Work, Past and Present. Rev H.L. Nelthropp, M.A., F.S.A. Printed in London, 1873
In 1881 he became a freeman of the Clockmakers’ Company and was soon appointed to the Court. He was generous in his gifts to the Company’s Museum Collection. He took a close interest in the antique clocks and watches offered to the Company and was frequently entrusted with their purchase. In 1891 he persuaded the Court to purchase Harrison’s 5th marine timekeeper for 100 guineas, today the Company’s greatest treasure (above).
This lever escapement watch by George Blackie in a gold engine-turned case made in 1873, was Nelthropp’s personal pocket watch. It has a white enamel dial with a subsidiary seconds dial and up-and-down indicator. The movement has a helical balance-spring. It is signed ‘Geoe. Blackie fecit 392, Strand, London No. 742’ and engraved on the back plate ‘Nelthropp prize winner 1873’.
Nelthropp became Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 1893 and in 1894 presented his entire personal collection valued at £2,000 to the Company, together with a detailed catalogue.
I have the great pleasure of seeing Nelthropp’s collection every week as I conduct my tour at the Clockmakers’ Museum and have two particular favourites, which are detailed below. The first is this stunning gold watch with half-quarter repeating by Brockbanks made in London in 1812.
Gold watch with half-quarter repeating by Brockbanks, London, 1812. The Clockmakers’ Museum/Clarissa Bruce © The Clockmakers’ Charity
The four-coloured gold hunter case has chiselled floral ornament. The inner case has complicated engine-turning and is hallmarked and stamped on the inside with maker’s mark WM, and the number 700. The gold dial has an engine-turned centre, covered with translucent red enamel, with an hour ring enamelled grey-blue and a subsidiary second’s dial and gold wavy hands. The jewelled movement has a spring detent escapement with steel escape wheel, free-sprung helical spring and three-arm compensation balance with sliding weights each clamped by two tangential screws. The half-quarter repeater strikes on two gongs.
What I love most about this watch is the trouble Nelthropp took to acquire this outstanding timepiece. He regarded both the movement and the case as perfection. He wrote in his catalogue ‘it is hardly possible to obtain a watch on which so much time and care has been expended’ and only after ‘considerable persuasion’, he said, would Brockbanks’ successors sell it to him. The sign of a true collector!
The other is the gold watch with tourbillon by Girard Perregaux made in Switzerland in 1879. Nelthropp described this as a ‘Magnificent Specimen of the Tourbillon’ in his catalogue.
Gold watch with tourbillon by Girard Perregaux, Switzerland, 1879. Science Museum Group/The Clockmakers’ Museum © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London
The gold hunter case is engraved all over with flowers and foliage, and with English hallmark dated 1879 and stamped 51701 and 14961. The white enamel dial with subsidiary seconds is signed ‘Girard Perregaux, Chaux de Fonds’. It has fine gold hands and a jewelled movement with pivoted detent escapement and tourbillon which is signed on the central bridge ‘Girard Perregaux, Chaux de Fonds’. The three-bridge tourbillon is still used today in modern Girard Perregaux watches.
As a fellow collector I am fascinated by the eclectic nature of a number of items in the collection, which includes this Chinese celestial globe moved by clockwork made by Qui Mei-lu in Wuyuan, China in 1828.
The globe is driven by a fusee movement with verge escapement and balance and rotates at the same speed as the stars. It is made from silver-plated copper, with engraved lines, stars and Chinese characters, filled in with colours. The globe is seated on a brass stand with four dragon-shaped legs. In 1807 the astronomical and horological encyclopaedia, Gao-hou Meng-qiu, was published in Shanghai. This set out information about astronomy, clocks and globemaking, and was likely to be the inspiration behind Qui Mei-Lu’s clockwork globes. The stand may be based on the 6-foot diameter celestial globe originally located at the Beijing Ancient Observatory, which was constructed by the Flemish Jesuit astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest in 1673.
When collectors ask me what they should buy, I always say, “buy what you like” and perhaps most importantly, “always buy the best you can afford”. Nelthropp also knew the value of buying the best. This is evident in this important marine chronometer made by the great English ‘watchmaker and inventor’ John Arnold.
This eight-day marine chronometer by John Arnold & Son was made in London, c.1795. It is housed within an octagonal kingwood box without gimbals and has a silvered dial with subsidiary seconds dial, signed ‘John Arnold and Son, London’. The movement has a fusee and spring-detent escapement with Z balance and helical steel spring with end-curves. It is signed on the movement ‘John Arnold & Son London No 78/168 Invt. et Fect’.
Nelthropp’s collection was both a personal ‘hobby’ and part of the intellectual culture of his time. He inspired others to become great collectors of their time, including Courtenay Adrian Ilbert, David Arthur Wetherfield, Sir David Salomons, James Packard, Henry Graves Jr., and George Daniels amongst others. Though his numismatic works are more widely remembered, Nelthropp’s passion for clock and watch collecting speaks to his wide-ranging curiosity and appreciation for the mechanical arts.
You can see the Rev. H. L. Nelthropp collection at the Clockmakers’ Museum which is on permanent display in the Science Museum, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD.
The post The Greatest Horologists You’ve Never Heard Of: Reverend Henry Leonard Nelthropp – The First Great Collector of Watches and Clocks appeared first on Worn & Wound.
