Lot 204

Josiah Emery, London, Height 1890 mm, circa 1792
An early English precision regulator with regulator dial, specially made for the famous polymath and aristocrat Jean de Vivenzio. A similar precision regulator made by John Arnold having the same dedication on the dial is held by the Museo degli Strumenti Astronomici - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte in Naples
Case: mahogany, veneered, treaded, glazed front door, removable top with glazed, openable front. Dial: silvered, signed "Pour le Chevalier Jean de Vivenzio", central minute indicator, window for hour indicator, seconds at "12", blued steel hands. Movm.: brass movement mounted on a massive Carrara marble plate, rectangular shaped, Graham escapement, hack feature, weight driven, compensation grid-iron pendulum, brass pendulum bob.
Jean de Vivenzio, also known as Giovanni Vivenzio (174? - 1817), was a friend and pen pal of Giuseppe Piazzi. From a young age he distinguished himself in the fields of literature, science and especially medicine and soon became a lecturer at the University of Naples, as well as a famous scientist and writer. He taught surgery, obstetrics, anatomy and experimental physics. Additionally he was director of the hospital "Ospedale degli dei Reali ospedali Militari Incurabili e delle due Sicilie".
In 1780 de Vivenzio was appointed Knight of the Order of Constantine by King Ferdinand, as well as royal and court physician of the kingdom. He successfully lobbied the king to reopen the previously abolished military hospitals, which was realised in 1800. He was also a member of distinguished academies both in Italy and abroad (among them the National Academy of Medicine in Paris and the Russian Academy in St. Petersburg). Amongst other things Vivenzio published the "history of electricity and its medical application" in 1784, and a book on the history and theory of earthquakes in 1783.
In a letter addressed to the astronomer de Cesaris of Breat and dated October 1787, Cassella wrote that the "Sir Knight Vivenzio ... has had his valuable cabinet supplemented by a finely crafted tellurium and an unusual planetary system, which was carried out carefully by highly skilled British craftsmen. He is expecting a large Dollond telescope, a clock of the famous Arnold, a quadrant .... On the 16th of March, 1813 Federico Zuccari paid the sum of 800 ducats ... for a pendulum clock, four globes of Marchese Vivenzio as a purchase price for the Observatory of S. Gaudioso". After Vivenzio's death, his heirs sold his entire collection of scientific instruments.
Source: http://www.oacn.inaf.it/museo/strumenti.php?id=93 and http://www.conteanolana.it/uomini%20illustri%20libro%20R-Z/Vivenzio%20Giovanni.htm, as of 03/30/2015.
Josiah Emery (1725-1797)
The eminent watch maker Josiah Emery, Charing Cross, London was born in the Swiss canton of Vaud, he moved to London, where he built accurate clocks with cylinder escapements. In 1781, became honorary member of the Clockmakers' Company. He came to fame as the first watchmaker worldwide after Thomas Mudge to pioneer the construction of watches regulated by a free anchor escapement and was the first to series-produce it. L. Berthoud said:"His work was particularly fine in all essentials, without unnecessary show."