111st Auction
2024/11/16
Lot 79
Robert MolyneuxGMT
A small London expedition chronometer with second time zone
Sold
estimated
2.600—3.500 €
Price realized
3.200 €
specific features
Case
Three part mahogany box, brass bowl with glazed rotating bezel.
Dial
Silvered, Roman numerals, gold spade hands.
Movement
Brass movement, chain/fusee, spring detent escapement according to Thomas Earnshaw, bimetallic chronometer balance with 12 screws, helical balance spring, diamond endstone.
Diam.95 x 95 x 60 mm
Circa1841
Ctry.England
Robert Molyneux was a pupil of Thomas Earnshaw and adopted his master’s methods. Molyneux was initially in a working partnership with his fellow apprentice Charles John Cope at Earnshaw's workshop; when Parry and Lyon went on expedition in 1821, they took amongst other things the chronometer no. 405 by Molyneux & Cope with them on their ships "Hecla" and "Fury". Later he developed a chronometer with thermometer and a useful temperature compensation for chronometer balances at the same time as Eiffe. In England the name Molyneux appears around 1572, which was the time of the emigration of the Huguenots from France.