case in its original finish with minor scrapes, scratches and dings, some polish residue around some of the brass ornaments, glasses and mirrors good, dial with losses to silvering, hands good, pendulum rod good, bob in old lacquer and with tarnish and minor staining, weights in old lacquer and with minor tarnish, movement plates with minor tarnish, escapement will need a bit of work, as there is no locking on the exit pallet, and escape wheel teeth have been slightly blunted. An unusual and highly individualistic clock typical of the quirky output of James Arthur. A machinist by trade, the clocks use involute gearing, and are more akin to machinery than to traditional clock work. The use of boxwood for the wheelwork was an idea aimed at reducing the weight of the mobiles. While we have handled other Arthur clocks, none of our previous offerings have been constructed to this design.
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James Arthur, New York, an unusual drumhead regulator made as a wedding gift for his daughter, Bessie Humphrey Arthur, the mahogany case with glazed base and trunk, the glasses surrounded by half round moldings with decorative brass nails, and with applied, cast brass ornaments, decorative latches and hinges, the signed and dated timepiece movement with damascened, skeletonized brass plates and boxwood wheels, and visible through the trunk door, a bevel geared linkage extending into the drumhead top and driving the motion work, the seatboard with engraved presentation plaque, "Bessie Humphrey Arthur from her father James Arthur October 25th 1904", the movement driven by two reeded brass weights, with heavy brass disc pendulum decorated with turned, concentric beads, and the two piece wooden rod with beat adjustment device, all components reflected in the mirrored case back, silvered dial with pierced arabic numerals and minute markers, and blued steel hands of Arthur's design, together with a copy of Hering's "The Lure of the Clock", which documents the Arthur collection and his thoughts on clockmaking. case in its original finish with minor scrapes, scratches and dings, some polish residue around some of the brass ornaments, glasses and mirrors good, dial with losses to silvering, hands good, pendulum rod good, bob in old lacquer and with tarnish and minor staining, weights in old lacquer and with minor tarnish, movement plates with minor tarnish, escapement will need a bit of work, as there is no locking on the exit pallet, and escape wheel teeth have been slightly blunted. An unusual and highly individualistic clock typical of the quirky output of James Arthur. A machinist by trade, the clocks use involute gearing, and are more akin to machinery than to traditional clock work. The use of boxwood for the wheelwork was an idea aimed at reducing the weight of the mobiles. While we have handled other Arthur clocks, none of our previous offerings have been constructed to this design.
