Lot 44

Richard Pendleton, Pentonville/London, Height 1800 mm, circa 1790
An important precision regulator with experimental "roller lever escapement"
Case: mahogany, rising hood, tiered, regulation scale. Dial: regulator dial, silvered, radial Arabic 1-24 and Roman I-XII/I-XII hour indicator at "6", Arabic seconds at "12", blued lozenge hands. Movm.: brass plate movement, moulded pillars, weight driven, 7-day power reserve, experimental "roller lever" escapement, mercury pendulum, pendulum spring suspension.
From a historical point of view as well as documentarily, Richard Pendleton seems to have been something of a phantom. We know that at the time when Joshia Emery created his legendary pocket watches with lever escapement, Richard Pendleton worked for him and was specialising in escapements. He is said to have had a considerable influence on the development of modern lever escapements. Thomas Mudge Junior hired him along with other famous makers such as Robert Pennington and William Howells to mass-produce his father’s highly complicated marine chronometers.
Thomas Mudge's pioneering work in the 1750s and 1760s created a new type of escapement for portable timekeepers - the lever escapement. Mudge's original concept had been a complicated one which was difficult to replicate, even by the best watchmakers, and it was not until the 1780s that the lever escapement was developed by Josiah Emery of Charing Cross, London. Emery employed a highly skilled escapement maker, Richard Pendleton, and the result of their combined efforts was a series of pocket watches with Emery's lever escapement design.
Quelle: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/g/gold_cased_watch_with_lever_es.aspx, as of 10/08/2015.

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