KESSELS, ALTONA, NO. 1394. CIRCA 1840

Details

A DANISH BRASS-MOUNTED MAHOGANY TWO-DAY MARINE CHRONOMETER
KESSELS, ALTONA, NO. 1394. CIRCA 1840
BOX: two tier, with brass lozenges to top and escutcheon, inside of lid with paper label for 'C.W.HADDEN & CO.', brass gimbal and bowl (numbered '189') DIAL: 90 mm. diameter silvered and engraved dial with subsidiary seconds at XII and 56-hour power reserve indication at VI, signed and numbered 'Kessels Altona/1394', blued steel hands under replaced glass MOVEMENT: single chain and fusee with Earnshaw's spring detent, maintaining power, cut bimetallic balance with blued steel helical balance spring and jewelled endstone, plain top plate; winding key
The box -- 6 in. (15 cm.) high; 6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.) wide; 6 1/8 in. (155 cm.) deep

Provenance

Auktionen Dr H. Crott, 11 November 1995, lot 422.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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Lot Essay

Heinrich Kessels (1781-1849) was born in Maastricht, The Netherlands, then a city of the French Empire. He worked for Breguet in Paris. In 1821 he went to Copenhagen, receiving the patronage of King Frederich VI, who encouraged him to stay in Altona, then Danish territory. Chronometer maker to the Danish Navy and a member of the Swedish academy, he sold instruments to most of the north European observatories. A chronometer by him, No. 1319, sold Christie's London, 22 September 2011, lot 158 (£10,000).

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