A REGENCY MAHOGANY LONGCASE REGULATOR BY JOSEPH SMITH OF WOKINGTON, CIRCA 1810

the hood with waved arched pediment with three brass finials above an arched door with circular glass with brass bezel flanked by a pair of composite fluted columns above a long door with reeded mouldings and composite fluted pilasters above a square base with conforming reeded decoration, raised on bracket feet, the silvered dial with central minute hand and subsidiary dials for seconds and hours, with a four pillar 8 day movement with a dead beat escapement and maintaining power, with a rare Harrison gridiron pendulum; 50CM WIDE, 25CM DEEP, 115CM HIGH

NOTE John Harrison (1693-1776) invented the gridiron pendulum, made of alternate rods of steel and brass, whose relative dilations cancel each other out when the pendulum is heated. This meant that warm weather no longer made clocks run slow. Timepieces equipped with the gridiron pendulum were superior in accuracy to the best clocks of the day. Around the same time, he also introduced a second spring into clocks, to keep them running while they were being wound up.

PROVENANCE W.F.Bradshaw