Clockmaking in England and Wales in the Twentieth Century E-Book

John Glanville

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 617

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Over a decade John Glanville and Bill Wolmuth undertook an important horological project for the British Museum. This involved establishing a representative collection, for the Museum, of twentieth-century domestic mechanical clocks made in England and Wales using industrialized manufacturing methods. This remarkable book is the culmination of their efforts. Wide-ranging in its coverage, it will be a key reference tool for horologists, horoligical students, collectors, and antiques and clock dealers. It provides a comprehensive history of each significant manufacturer, including the principal people involved and covers the various mechanical clock movements that were produced. Previously unpublished research about the manufacturers, the clocks they made and the dates when they were manufactured is presented. Finally, this book informs readers how they can identify and date almost all of the clocks they are likely to encounter. This detailed and meticulously researched book on the domestic mechanical clocks made in England and Wales in the twentieth century, a culmination of ten years' research by the authors, will be a key reference tool for horologists, horological students, collectors, and clock and antiques dealers. Superbly illustrated with 1016 colour photographs and period black and white illustrations.

Leseprobe

Clockmaking in England and Wales in the Twentieth Century

The Industrialized Manufacture of Domestic Mechanical Clocks

John Glanville and William M. Wolmuth

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2015 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2015

© John Glanville and William M. Wolmuth 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 896 7

Contents

Forewords

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 The British United Clock Co., Tame Side and Newbridge

Chapter 3 Williamson, English Clock & Watch Manufacturers (up to 1932), Rotherham and Mercer

Chapter 4 J.J. Elliott, Grimshaw, Gillett & Johnston and F.W. Elliott

Chapter 5 Smiths, English Clock & Watch Manufacturers (1932 onward), Enfield and United Kingdom Clock Co.

Chapter 6 Garrard, Norland and Clarion

Chapter 7 Perivale, Davall, Newport and Francis

Glossary

References

Index

Foreword

by Neil MacGregor

This book marks the culmination of a ten year project aimed at researching and collecting English and Welsh 20th century mass-produced clocks, undertaken by John Glanville and Bill Wolmuth in collaboration with the horological team at the British Museum.

It is an admirable achievement, blending the histories of people and organisations with the details of the clocks that they produced.

Glanville and Wolmuth’s foresight and resolution, in what has been a neglected aspect of Britain’s horological heritage, has produced a core reference for generations to come, as the cultural and historical significance of these clocks is increasingly understood.

Neil MacGregor

Director of the British Museum

Foreword

by David Thompson

By the end of the nineteenth century it seemed that the British clockmaking industry was facing extinction as a result of the unprecedented importation of cheap, mass-produced clocks from America, France and the Black Forest region of south Germany. Foreign-made clocks were being sold in their millions. It appeared that this British industry, with a history stretching back for centuries, might cease to exist. However, what developed from the early years of the twentieth century up to the post-Second World War period was a remarkable phoenix-like recovery until it was brought to an end by the introduction of the battery powered clock.

Today, Westminster chiming mantel and ‘Grandmother’ clocks can be found in thousands of homes. They have been passed down from the generation living between the two World Wars and are now cherished by those who have inherited them. For many the chiming clock was a retirement gift, for others it was a favoured wedding gift, often with a neatly engraved brass plaque recording the event. Such clocks were relatively modest in price and were thus affordable to a large proportion of the population.

In the horological world, however, these clocks are commonly seen as very much second-class citizens and largely ignored in the face of fine clocks from earlier centuries. When asked, many ‘experts’ will say that they are all the same and of little merit. What could be further from the truth? The story of the development of this manufacturing industry in Great Britain is a fascinating one, and one that has been recognized particularly by two individuals, John Glanville and Bill Wolmuth. They have seen not only the importance of this industry in British manufacturing and social history, but also the amazing diversity of the product and its place in the industrial heritage of Great Britain. Once they got started they quickly saw that the diversity of manufacturing techniques and the enormous range of products were far greater than they ever imagined. They must be praised for their tenacity in both researching the companies that made the clocks and for putting together an unparalleled collection of clocks. Such names as Tame Side, Smiths, Enfield, Garrard, Elliott and Perivale are known to the horological world, but how many people know where and when their cherished clock was made and where it fits in the story?

What the authors have achieved in this book is remarkable in bringing to life these overlooked clocks and telling the story of the rise and fall of the various companies involved in making them. They have created a reference work that will be the standard on the subject for generations to come. If this were not enough, they have also worked with and supported The British Museum in putting together a unique reference collection of the clocks themselves – a collection that will also stand as a central reference for anyone who wishes to know more about their own clocks and the story behind them.

Thanks to the authors, these modest clocks will become a testament to British industry and the era in which they were made.

David Thompson FSA, FBHI

Senior Curator (1995–2013), Horological Collections,

Department of Prehistory and Europe, The British Museum

Davall Tower Westminster chiming clock with night safety facility.

Dedication

To

Diana, John’s wife, for years of horological forbearance

and

Anna, Eva, Hannah & Nicola, Bill’s nieces

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank for their support Neil MacGregor, The Director of The British Museum, and Jonathan Williams, Deputy Director and former Keeper of the Department of Prehistory and Europe. The authors are also greatly indebted to The British Museum’s Horological Collections team of David Thompson, the Senior Curator until his retirement in 2013, his successor, Paul Buck, and Curators Oliver Cooke and Laura Turner.

The authors also wish to thank the following organizations:

The British Horological Institute, Newark

The Guildhall Library, London

The National Archives, Kew, West London

The European Patents Office

The Bath Industrial Heritage Trust Ltd

The Liverpool Record Office

The Saddleworth Museum Archives

Davall Gears Ltd

Volkwagen AG, Germany

The authors also wish to thank the following relatives of company staff and former employees for their assistance:

Bentima Ltd: Paola Meekins and Helen Buddle, granddaughters of Elias Buerger, and Joan Berger, daughterin-law of Elias Buerger.

Clarion Clocks: Amanda Davies, great-granddaughter of Biago Petronzio.

F.W.Elliott Ltd: Mark Westcombe Elliott, great-greatgrandson of J.J. Elliott, for his assistance with Chapter 4, and Michael Kemp, Head Clockmaker in charge of movement assembly at the company’s factory in Hastings.

Enfield Clocks Ltd: Paul Dold, son of Ernest Dold, Chief Engineer c.1932 to April 1940.

The Garrard Engineering & Manufacturing Co. Ltd: Annie McCaffrey (Lady Norrie), granddaughter of Sebastian Henry Garrard, and Brian Mortimer, son of Edmund Mortimer, company employee.

Thomas Mercer Ltd: Gordon Clark.

Newbridge Clocks: Roger Horstmann, grandson of Ernst Hermann Horstmann, and Bryan Horstmann and Chris Davis, grandsons of Gustav Otto Horstmann.

Newport Clock Co. Ltd and Perivale Clock Manufacturing Co. Ltd: Lydia Mazzotti and Andrew Colin, daughter and son of Dr Andrew Guershoon Colin.

Norland Clock Co. Ltd: Jenny Rosenfeld, granddaughter of Laurence Rosenfeld.

Perivale Clock Manufacturing Co. Ltd: Nicholas Snowman, grandson of Emmanuel Moghi-Levkine.

Tame Side Clocks: Dorothy Holdsworth, granddaughter of Alfred Hirst.

The authors also wish to thank the following horological experts and enthusiasts:

Anthony Boswell for his assistance since 2005.

Richard Constable for his assistance with the Black Forest connections of some companies and the origin of some of the German movement designs.

Tim Mallet for his help in identifying a number of movement variations.

Peter Gosnell with regard to The British United Clock Company Ltd, and for providing two early Williamson catalogues.

Nigel Shenton, for providing various papers concerning his late parents’ research into Grimshaw, Baxter & J.J. Elliott Ltd.

Ray Beck for his assistance regarding Newbridge Clocks.

Ted Powell for his assistance regarding J.D. Francis Ltd.

James Nye, Smiths Company Historian, for his help with photographs and historic company information.

Peter Wotton, author of several publications about Smiths, for his encouragement and assistance with the authors’ research into the company.

The members of St Albans Clock Club and other friends and colleagues who have given the authors help and encouragement throughout the project.

Finally, while the majority of the photographs have been taken by the authors, they wish to thank Paul Winch-Furness, Rupert Boddington and Philip Wolmuth for their photographic assistance in many ways.

Abbreviations

CLOCK COMPANIES

ABEC

All British Escapement Company

Andrew

Andrew & Company Ltd

BADUF

Badische Uhrenfabrik AG

Bentima

The Bentima Company Ltd

BUCC

The British United Clock Company Ltd

Clarion

The Clarion Clock Company

Davall

Stephen Davall & Sons Ltd

ECWM

English Clock & Watch Manufacturers Ltd

Elliott

F.W. Elliott Ltd

Enfield

Enfield Clock Company (London) Ltd

Francis

John D. Francis Ltd

G&J

Gillett & Johnston Ltd

Garrard

The Garrard Engineering & Manufacturing Company Ltd

Grimshaw

Grimshaw, Baxter and J.J. Elliott Ltd

GUFA

Gütenbacher Uhrenfabrik C.H. Schatz GmbH

Hirst

Hirst Brothers Ltd

Horstmann

The Horstmann Gear Company Ltd

JJE

J.J. Elliott Ltd

Mercer

Thomas Mercer Ltd

Newbridge

Newbridge Clocks

Newport

Newport Clock Company Ltd

Norland

The Norland Clock Company Ltd

Perivale

The Perivale Clock Manufacturing Company Ltd

Rotherham

Rotherham & Sons Ltd

SCW

Smiths Clocks & Watches Ltd

SEC

Smith’s English Clocks Ltd

T&R

Thwaites & Reed Ltd

Tame Side

Tame Side Clocks

UKCC

United Kingdom Clock Company Ltd

Williamson

H. Williamson Ltd

CURRENCY

British currency before 1971

One pound equalled 20 shillings or 240 pence

£1/10/6

One pound ten shillings and six pence

10/6

Ten shillings and six pence

10/-

Ten shillings

6d.

Six pence

Chapter 1

Introduction

Although over the last 250 years The British Museum has built an extremely fine collection of mechanical clocks, in 2004 the authors noticed that it had yet to extend its collection to document the last 100 years of mechanical clockmaking in England and Wales. As a result, in 2005, the authors approached the Museum and volunteered to form for it a representative collection of mass-produced domestic mechanical clocks made in England and Wales in the twentieth century. The Museum warmly welcomed the offer and duly commissioned the project.

Apart from Alan and Rita Shenton’s book on clocks made between 1840 and 1940,1 relatively little had been published on the subject by 2005. In addition, the majority of the twentieth-century clocks are not marked with the manufacturer’s name or trademark. As a result, the authors have had to undertake extensive research to work out who made what and to find examples for the Museum. The research included a detailed study of The Horological Journal from the 1880s onward and of other trade journals where accessible to the authors;tracking down and examining manufacturers’ catalogues and brochures; searching national archives and specialist libraries; tracing and interviewing relatives of company founders and staff; and obtaining clocks and studying them. Clocks were mainly acquired by expeditions to specialist clock fairs and trade antiques fairs and by using eBay, not only for some of the purchases but also as a further research tool.

The research proved more challenging and interesting than the authors had anticipated and has resulted in them being able to piece together the history of the various companies in more detail than expected; to trace a surprising number of descendants of company founders and staff and obtain further unpublished information; to establish how almost all such clocks can be identified; and to form the collection of clocks for The British Museum.

As a result of the authors’ research, a detailed history of each significant manufacturer, the key people involved and the various mechanical clock movements has been established. Readers should therefore be able to identify the manufacturer and narrow down where and when almost any clock was made. The photographs included are predominantly of clocks collected for the Museum, but other clocks have been referred to where necessary. However, to avoid the challenge becoming unmanageable, the project has excluded alarm clocks, American clocks made in the UK, electric clocks and those primarily produced for commercial and industrial use. The project’s focus on manufacturing in England and Wales has resulted from the location of the factories concerned and not from any lack of interest in horology further afield in the UK.

Although hard to prove, it seems probable that as many domestic mechanical clocks were made in England and Wales in the twentieth century as in the four preceding centuries combined. This was made possible by industrialization of production to tight tolerances, which allowed components and assemblies to be mass-produced and yet to be completely interchangeable between all examples of any particular model of movement being produced. This eliminated the costly and time-consuming process by skilled clockmakers of hand-finishing the components, to achieve a satisfactory fit, so allowing relatively unskilled male and female labour to assemble clock movements.

HOROLOGY UP TO THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

During the nineteenth century mass production on industrial lines had revolutionized clock production in Germany, America and France. In the UK, imported clocks had captured most of the popular market. This resulted from the belief of traditional British clockmakers that only clocks made to craft standards were any good and that they should be able to sell their products at a higher price. However, the public clearly did not share this view and by 1885 the clockmaking trade in Britain was at low ebb, with 782,161 clocks being imported that year.2

One of the earliest companies in England and Wales to industrialize clock production was the British United Clock Company (BUCC), which was formed in 1885 and manufactured clocks until it ceased trading in 1909. Their designs reflected their founders’ experience of American clock production. The company was also ahead of its time employing women to operate equipment, a practice that later became firmly established in wartime. BUCC was followed by H. Williamson Ltd, which bought an existing works and, with the help of a German expert, re-equipped it to make domestic clocks using industrialized, tight tolerance production. The company continued making clocks for many years, and merged clock production in 1921 with Grimshaw, Baxter and J.J. Elliott to form English Clock & Watch Manufacturers Ltd, which Smiths acquired from receivers in 1932.

The advent of the First World War created a demand for millions of clockwork timing mechanisms for shell fuses and other military ordnance, which the British clock trade was ill-equipped to supply due to its previous reluctance to embrace industrialized manufacture. This resulted in concerted efforts by the Government to force change and The Horstmann Gear Company Ltd, which later made Newbridge clocks, was commissioned to manufacture tolerance gauges for use by other manufacturers to make parts to tight tolerances for the war effort. This then enabled components for the military to be made around the country and assembled in France. The war also spawned new engineering companies, like The Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company Ltd, which later used the skills it developed to make gramophones and, for many years, domestic clocks.

HOROLOGY BETWEEN THE WARS

During the First World War, at a time when food and war provisions came first, the Government introduced a wide-ranging import duty of one-third on non-essential cargo. The tax was known as the McKenna Duty, after the Chancellor of the Exchequer who introduced it, and it was very popular with British clock manufacturers as its scope included imported clocks and watches.

At the end of the First World War, with the McKenna Duty in place and widespread antipathy to Germany, there was a benign environment for an industrialized clockmaking industry to develop in the UK. Hirst Brothers of Oldham built a modern factory and started manufacture of Tame Side clocks and The Horstmann Gear Company of Bath started manufacture of Newbridge clocks. However, in the 1920s political vacillation caused constant insecurity for the clockmaking industry with the Liberal Party wanting to abolish the Duty in accordance with their free-trade principles and the Conservative Party wishing to maintain it. As the 1920s progressed, anti-German feeling also abated and UK clock importers, such as Bentima and Andrew & Co., flourished importing German clocks. By the late 1920s both Hirst and Horstmann had abandoned clock manufacture and yet there was a growing awareness of the need for industrialization of clock production for Britain to have a healthy clockmaking industry.

A further company, F.W. Elliott, was founded in the 1920s and manufactured domestic clocks in volume aiming at the upper end of the market. Although it did not manufacture in as large quantities as its later rivals, it was the longest lived, continuing to make mechanical clocks until the 1990s. It was one of the few companies that used English designs; it made its own high quality cases and its clocks are still much sought after.

The early 1930s saw the development of what was to grow into a major English clockmaking industry. Hyperinflation in Germany resulted in many German business closures with the associated clockmaking machinery and many movement designs being available. In addition, the associated unemployment resulted in skilled German personnel becoming available to help set up clockmaking factories in the UK and to train British staff. Within a few years, clocks were being made in England, using industrialized manufacture and German expertise, by The Garrard Engineering & Manufacturing Company Ltd, The Norland Clock Company Ltd, The Clarion Clock Company, the Enfield Clock Company (London) Ltd, Stephen Davall & Sons Ltd and The Perivale Clock Manufacturing Company Ltd. While all of these companies trumpeted British manufacture in their marketing, their use of German designs and expertise has remained a largely untold story. As part of the authors’ research, the sources of the majority of the English manufacturers’ movement designs have been established and are explained in the various chapters of the book.

In the 1930s the upsurge in clock production in England and Wales was very rapid. It was estimated in the 1930s that the total output of British clock manufacturers in 1931 was 65,000 clocks; in 1933 it was between 900,000 and one million; and in 1934 it was thought to have exceeded a million.3 This growth in production was achieved despite competition remaining fierce; in 1938 nearly five million complete clocks and clock movements of all types were imported, of which approximately 3.85 million were German. Most of the UK production was for home consumption: only 10,000 complete clocks were exported in 1938.4

In 1933 the new clockmaking businesses formed The British Clock Manufacturers’ Association with the objective of having a vehicle to represent its members to Government on matters of common interest, such as import duties, Empire preference and the trade marking of imported goods. Until the Second World War they had some success. By 1939 the Association had twenty-three members, of whom approximately half made domestic mechanical clocks industrially; the only firm that had industrialized its production, and was initially involved but did not remain with the Association, was F.W. Elliott.

Before the Second World War it was common for retail jewellers to have clocks supplied ‘in the white’ unsigned by the maker but with their own name on the dial. Because of this it took the authors some time before they detected that, while not physically stamped with the maker’s name, there were other unique markers that were just as effective. These have been indicated when describing the clocks: they vary from the style and layout of Made in England stampings to the shape of exposed components and the layout of the movements.

While at the outbreak of war in 1939 the country had a far larger and more productive clockmaking industry than had been the case in 1914, there was still a great shortage of capacity for the production of the many mechanical timing devices required for military ordnance and for precision engineering of all kinds. In some respects there were great opportunities and some firms, including Smiths, Garrard and Perivale, suspended domestic clock production for the duration of the war and switched to manufacture in support of the military. However, by 1940 Norland and Clarion had stopped clock manufacture, never to resume.

HOROLOGY AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR

By 1939 English clock manufacturers were well established and after the impetus provided by the Second World War they flourished. In the 1950s England and Wales could claim to make more domestic clocks than any other European nation.

Because of the poor financial state of the national economy, which made income from export of vital concern, it was some years after the Second World War ended before clock production for the domestic market recommenced; most manufacturers introduced their new postwar ranges in about 1949.

For the next twenty years trade was good but the writing was on the wall. From the early 1970s the popular market for mechanical clocks collapsed with the growing production of battery-powered electric clocks and then quartz technology. This was compounded by a change in fashion that resulted in greatly reduced demand for chiming and striking clocks. Within a few years all production had ceased other than of timepieces. The old mechanical clocks were soon being thrown away, unloved by the owners and not yet of interest to collectors and enthusiasts. The last manufacturer of domestic mechanical clocks on an industrial basis, F.W. Elliott Ltd, who made better clocks in fine cases, soldiered on until 1997.

RECENT TIMES AND FURTHER THOUGHTS

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the long-vanished mechanical clockmaking industry of England and Wales. Whether or not the twentieth-century clocks were in cases appealing to modern tastes, the movements were usually made robustly and today offer the layman, enthusiast and collector a taste of history at a very modest price. As a result, the authors hope that the reader will find much in the book of interest, whether he or she wants to know more about the subject in general or has a specific clock and wants to date it or identify its origin. It is hoped that the book will also result in such clocks being appreciated to a much greater extent and perhaps help dealers to find new, loving homes for them.

Throughout the book, when describing clock movements, the authors have included dimensions to assist the reader with identification. Although the clocks were generally made to tight tolerances, minor variations in plate height, width and thickness did occur. Nominal dimensions that the authors have given show plate dimensions rounded to the nearest millimetre. Plate thicknesses are given to the nearest tenth of a millimetre, since rounding to the nearest millimetre would obscure the difference between a clock with a 1.6mm plate thickness and another of 2.4mm thickness, despite such differences being worthy of note. Similarly, the distance between plates is given to the nearest tenth of a millimetre.

Readers who wish to view the collection, known as The Glanville & Wolmuth Collection, may do so to a limited extent online at The British Museum’s website. Although a shortage of exhibition space precludes the collection from being on general view at the Museum, individual clocks may be inspected by appointment. The combination of this book, which has been carefully referenced, and the collection provides a research resource that will enable those interested to conduct further study.

Anyone endeavouring to research clockmaking in England and Wales will find The Horological Journal an invaluable source of reference and the authors are no exception. As a result, they wish to thank The British Horological Institute for publishing the journal continuously for more than 150 years and for their generosity in allowing the authors to reproduce historical material from it.

This book and the collection formed for The British Museum have only come about as a result of the openmindedness and encouragement of The British Museum staff. The authors wish to thank for their support Neil MacGregor, The Director of The British Museum, and Jonathan Williams, Deputy Director and former Keeper of the Department of Prehistory and Europe. The authors are also greatly indebted to The British Museum’s Horological Collections team of David Thompson, the Senior Curator until his retirement in 2013, his successor, Paul Buck, and Curators Oliver Cooke and Laura Turner, for their help and support, without which the project would not have been undertaken or successfully completed.

Location of factories manufacturing domestic mechanical clocks, using industrialized techniques, in England and Wales in the twentieth century.

Chapter 2

The British United Clock Co., Tame Side and Newbridge

This chapter provides the history of three of the companies that pioneered the application of industrialized manufacturing techniques to clockmaking in Britain: The British United Clock Co. Ltd of Birmingham; Hirst Bros & Co. Ltd of Oldham, which manufactured clocks using the Tame Side trademark; and The Horstmann Gear Co. Ltd of Bath, which formed Newbridge Clocks. Details of a further pioneer, H. Williamson Ltd, are provided in Chapter 3. Their history spans a period of great change from shortly before Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 until the late 1920s.

INTRODUCTION

The British United Clock Company Ltd (BUCC) was founded in 1885 and traded until 1909. It was founded by Edward Davies from Carlisle, who emigrated to the United States, worked with his brothers for the Ansonia Clock Company in New York, returned to England and established BUCC in Birmingham. BUCC’s clock movements are very similar to those of Ansonia, reflecting the influence of the Davies family.

Hirst Brothers & Company Ltd (‘Hirst’), an Oldham firm, started mass production of industrial and domestic clocks in 1920 and they were sold with the Tame Side trademark. Although Hirst may have designed their fusee timepiece movements, the design of their striking non-fusee movements closely resembles that of Junghans. Unfortunately, the company was unable to manufacture the clocks profitably and the Tame Side factory closed c.1927.

The Horstmann Gear Company Ltd (‘Horstmann’), a Bath firm, was founded in 1904 and soon became preeminent in the design and manufacture of time controllers for street lighting. In 1919 the five Horstmann brothers, four of whom were clockmakers, decided to diversify and manufacture domestic clocks using modern production techniques. The company’s clock movements appear to have been designed in-house and were marketed with the Newbridge trademark. Unfortunately, the company failed to generate sufficient sales for such manufacture to be profitable and it appears to have stopped making domestic clocks in late 1925, thereafter only selling the stock accumulated.

THE BRITISH UNITED CLOCK CO. LTD (BUCC)

Even in his lifetime, little appears to have been published about Edward Davies, the founder of BUCC, and his origins. As a result, the authors are indebted to Peter Gosnell, London, and Chris Bailey, retired curator of the American Clock & Watch Museum, Bristol, Connecticut, for sharing their unpublished research and source material on Edward Davies and his family’s early activities until the formation of BUCC in 1885. Peter Gosnell has also made available his unpublished research on the clocks of BUCC and provided copies of historic BUCC advertisements. His help and advice have been invaluable. He teaches at the University of the Arts, London, and, as an amateur horologist, has studied over a number of years the development in the nineteenth century of Connecticut-manufactured brass clock movements and the export of American clock movements for casing in the UK, such clocks being known as ‘Anglo-American’ clocks. His research led to his study of early English-made clocks using American methods of manufacture and hence to those of BUCC.

THE INDIVIDUALS

EDWARD DAVIES

Edward Davies was responsible for setting up and managing BUCC’s factory. He was born in Orton, Cumbria, in northern England in 1842, the son of Walter Davies, a schoolmaster, and his wife Isabella.1 Edward had two brothers, Henry Davies (b.1840) and Walter Davies (b.1849). All three brothers grew up in Carlisle, where their father is thought to have died in 1859.2

The 1861 census records their mother, known as Isabella, as Elizabeth Davies, head of household, a widow aged 47 and the proprietor of houses, as living at 9 Brook Street, Botchergate, Carlisle in Cumberland. Her son Henry was noted as a designer, Walter was still at school and she had a daughter, Agnes, aged five. The 1861 census also recorded Edward Davies, aged 19, at 28 Kings Street, Whitehaven, living with and apprenticed to a master watchmaker, William H. Telford, who employed two men and three boys.

In 1867 Edward and Walter were recorded in United States immigration records as arriving in New York on 2 September, having sailed on the Manhattan from Liverpool. Henry followed on the same ship two years later. In the 1870 United States census, Henry, then aged 30, was noted as living in Brooklyn and working in a clock wholesale store,3 Edward, aged 27, lived nearby and was listed as a watchmaker and married to Alice, aged 23,4 and Walter, aged 21, also lived nearby and was recorded as a jeweller.5 By the end of 1870 Henry Davies was the plant superintendent of Geo. A. Jones & Co., New York. The company initially manufactured high-grade regulator clocks and imported clocks for resale but with Henry as their superintendent they expanded their range by adding parlour clock designs. In August 1873 it was announced that:

The business of the firm G.A. Jones & Co, will be carried on in future by Mr. H. J. Davies, (their late superintendent), who has associated with himself Mr. D.G. Hodgens, and will carry on the business under the designation of Davies & Hodgens, and manufacture a full line of the new styles that the late firm of G.A. Jones & Co were so celebrated for, and of which Mr. Davies was the sole originator. 6

Between 1873 and 1877 Henry applied for sixteen clock-related patents, four being shared with his youngest brother Walter.

In January 1878 the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, Ansonia, Connecticut, decided to restructure to accommodate its growth. The newly formed Ansonia Clock Company relocated to Brooklyn, New York, purchased the business of Henry Davies and appointed him as a Director and General Manager.7 Walter and Edward Davies were made Superintendents of Works.8 Between 1878 and 1884 the Davies brothers applied for more than thirty-five additional clock-related patents in New York, with the nine patents by Walter and four by Edward concerning clock movements and the remainder by Henry, mainly concerning the design of clock cases.

In 1882 Henry became seriously ill9 and in 1883 he returned to England. His death certificate records his demise in Cheltenham in July 1884 with his wife Emily being present. Edward came back to England at or about the same time: in December 1885 he was cited as thinking that he could make clocks cheaper in England where, unlike the USA, material prices were not government regulated.10 In the 1891 census Edward and his family were recorded living at Ivy Bank, Copeley Hill, Birmingham, which was within walking distance of the BUCC factory.

Walter remained in the United States, working for the Ansonia Clock Company. The New York Times of 22 February 1913 reported that: ‘Walter D. Davis, former President of the Ansonia Clock Company, died of heart disease Thursday, while in his automobile at Norwood. He was sixty-two years old.’

On his return to England, Edward used his American experience to set up his first factory behind 8 Hockley Hill, Birmingham. There he manufactured clocks with components made to sufficiently tight tolerances for parts to be interchangeable, so that the movements could be assembled quickly and without the need for time-consuming adjustment by skilled clockmakers. In 1885 BUCC was formed to incorporate Edward’s existing business with him as Chairman, a position he held until the company went into liquidation many years later.

In an article in The Horological Journal in 1889, a visitor to BUCC’s factory described Edward Davies as follows:

A tall, handsome, and portly man, who would probably turn 16 stone. His build is that of an Englishman, but from his conversation one might take him to be an American. Subsequent enquiry elicited the fact that, although he spent some years in the United States, he is a Britisher, and a native of Newcastle.

However, the reference to Newcastle was incorrect. The writer also observed that:

In the writer’s humble judgement there are but few men who could have accomplished it so well as the clever presiding mechanical genius, who proved to be as courteous and obliging as he was unostentatious. His remarks and answers to numberless questions inspired the belief that anything about machine-made clocks that is not within the knowledge of Edward Davies is not worth knowing. He made light of training the two or three hundred girls and lads, and of designing and making the punches, dies, lathes, rolls for balance-spring wire, of which he plaintively remarked they could not get proper ones till they made their own, though he spoke appreciatively of the helpful services of his foreman, Mr. C. Baine, who had been his right-hand from the beginning.11

JOHN FISHER

John Fisher came from a family of clockmakers. He was a grandson of John Greenwood, founder of John Greenwood & Sons, clock manufacturers, wholesalers and importers and he worked for the family business. He was reported to be a stalwart fellow over six feet tall12 and a businessman of conspicuous ability.13

In 1884 John Fisher was elected as a Council Member of The British Horological Institute (BHI) and was noted as working for John Greenwood & Sons, Farringdon Road.14 He served on the Council of the BHI for a number of years. He continued to work for the family business while being the Company Secretary and Managing Director of BUCC.

BUCC COMPANY HISTORY

BUCC was founded in 1885, produced 400 to 500 clocks a day by 1889 and went into liquidation, for the second and last time, in 1909. Despite claims by later manufacturers, BUCC was one of the first companies in more than 400 years of clockmaking in Britain to industrialize the process and was thus one of the pioneers of twentieth-century factory production of clocks in the country. Unpublished research suggests that one earlier company that industrialized clock manufacture was Charles & Henry Cartwright of Birmingham,15 possibly as early as 1869.16

At the Inventions Exhibition in 1885 in Kensington, London, John Greenwood & Sons exhibited ‘timepiece movements in different stages of manufacture, produced under the system of interchangeable manufacture which they have just perfected’.17 It is evident that the clocks Greenwood displayed were made by Edward Davies at his factory behind 8 Hockley Hill, Birmingham, before the formal establishment of BUCC later that year.

In November 1885 BUCC’s Articles of Association set out the principal objectives of the company as follows:

To acquire the goodwill of the business heretofore carried out by Edward Davies, at Hockley Hill, Birmingham, under the firm or style of the Anglo-American Clock Company, and to acquire all or any of the assets of the said Edward Davies in connection with the said business.

To buy, sell, manufacture and deal in Clocks, Watches, Clockwork and other machinery, Bronze, Brass, Silver-work and Gold-work, and generally to carry on the business of mechanical engineers and metal workers in all or any of their respective branches …18

Fig. 2.1 Excerpt from Ordnance Survey map of 1887, St Paul’s Ward, Birmingham, showing the position of the clock works in York Terrace, a narrow roadway to the side of 8 Hockley Hill. P. GOSNELL

Initially 1,000 £10 shares were issued. The Articles of Association identified the first directors as being Edward Davies (601 shares), John Fisher (100 shares) and William Short (20 shares). Edward Davies was named as Chairman, John Fisher was appointed the Company Secretary and Managing Director, William Dudley Short (10 shares) as Auditor and Robert Ley Wood (9 shares) as Solicitor of the Company. The role of William Short as a Director was not explained but he was by profession a chartered accountant and the Articles note that no director of the company may be an auditor of it. In addition, Amelia Fisher had 150 shares, Herbert Fisher 100 shares and John White, who was a clerk working for the Fishers, had 10 shares.

Edward Davies was given 600 of his shares in BUCC in payment for his business. The remaining shareholders initially paid only £1 per share of the £10 due, with the balance being payable when called for by the company.19 Thus, effectively, Edward Davies initially invested £6,000 in the new business and the Fisher family invested £350.

The Fisher family owned John Greenwood & Sons of Clerkenwell, London, which was established in 1839 and advertised in 1886 as being ‘manufacturers and importers of American, French, English and German clocks’.20 In 1901 The Horological Journal reported closure of the company due to retirement and gave a brief history.21 The founder, John Greenwood, started business in St John’s Square, Clerkenwell and the firm was reported to be the first to import American clocks with his orders soon reaching 5,000 cases at a time, each containing nine clocks.22 The claim was corroborated by Chauncey Jerome, who wrote of his experience of being the first American clock manufacturer to export ‘Yankee clocks’ to England in 1842.23

Mr Fisher, the merchant who sold the first Jerome clocks brought to England, was John Greenwood’s son-in-law and, after Mr Fisher’s death, Mrs Fisher continued the business with her sons. The company flourished and moved in 1875 to a new factory and showroom built for it at 34 Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell. The new building was described in The Horological Journal as almost palatial in style and as probably having the finest showroom for clocks in London.24 No doubt Greenwood’s success in selling American clocks led to the Fisher family’s interest in founding BUCC with Edward Davies. Davies was a talented horologist with expertise in American clock manufacture and the Fisher family had an established track record of selling such clocks.

After a fire in 1895 badly damaged Greenwood’s premises in Farringdon Road, the company continued business nearby in Clerkenwell Close until closure of the firm in 1901.25 After the fire, the building was rebuilt26and its address changed in 1979 when that part of Farringdon Road was renamed Farringdon Lane.27

In December 1885 it was reported in The Jeweller & Metalworker that:

We have lately seen some first-class nickel cased movements which have been made by the British United Clock Company, Limited, of Birmingham, and which will compare well for quality and price with anything of the kind in the market. We understand that the company are not as yet in full working order, but are manufacturing quickly, and have at present orders on hand for twenty thousand clocks.28

The following month, John Fisher, in his capacity as Secretary of BUCC, wrote to The Jeweller & Metalworker that the premises at 8 Hockley Hill had been taken in August 1884 and the first clock turned out in June 1885. Since then, the output had been increasing each month and would shortly be sufficient to keep up with orders. He claimed that the clocks were being made as cheap and better than American ones and would only require a little time for them to be made in the same quantities.29

In January 1886 it was reported in The Horological Journal that BUCC,

whose works are in Birmingham, have a cheap drum timepiece, with a lever escapement, ready to place upon the market, that will run the Americans very hard. From an examination of it which Mr. Fisher has courteously allowed us to make, we should judge that for appearance, quality, and price, it is in advance of anything of the kind imported from the States.

Fig. 2.2 Advertisement for the Victor timepiece, 15 April 1886. P. GOSNELL

In March 1886 BUCC raised further capital by a call of £2 per share on the 400 partly paid-up shares.30 In the same month, John Greenwood & Sons published an advertisement referring to ‘The New-English-made “Victor” lever timepiece in nickel, gilt & bronze cases at lowest prices.’31 BUCC’s first movements had pin pallet escapements with the true lever escapements being introduced later. However, in the 1880s the term ‘lever’ was used to include what is now called a ‘pin pallet’ escapement. In April 1886 BUCC published an advertisement for the Victor lever timepiece, noting that the Victor lever alarm would shortly be on sale. The advertisement stated that the Works were in Birmingham and the Office at 34 Farringdon Road, London.32

In October 1886 BUCC exhibited lever escapement timepieces in nickel and fancy cases at the British Association Exhibition in Birmingham.33 BUCC was also reported to be making 300 cheap portable drum timepiece clocks a day and to soon being able to make 1,000 a day as demand was practically unlimited. Edward Davies was quoted as regretting not establishing the factory in London, the destination for 90 per cent of BUCC’s output, but blaming a lack of incentives. He noted that in the USA, when Ansonia’s factory burnt down, the company had been offered more than twenty locations in which to rebuild the factory with land donated freehold and freedom from State taxes for twenty years. He reflected that something similar could be done in England to compete with overseas rivals. In England, the trade already manufactured cheap watches at one end of the spectrum and chronometers at the other and there was scope to expand manufacture. Davies is quoted as saying: ‘It may be worthwhile to turn our attention to a large trade in English work, remembering that to secure cream we must have a large supply of milk’.34 Unfortunately, the English clock trade remained wedded to small-scale workshop production and there were few attempts to embrace industrialized manufacture until well into the twentieth century.

In June 1888 it was reported that BUCC had patented a small 8-day timepiece in the form of a long drum with room for the main spring to occupy the full diameter of the drum. The dials were made of celluloid.35

Fig. 2.3 Advertisement showing BUCC’s new factory in Erdington, Birmingham, 1 November 1888. P. GOSNELL

Fig. 2.4 Photo from within the BUCC factory.39

In October 1888 the company moved to a new factory at The Clock Works, Gravelly Hill, Erdington, Birmingham, to meet rapidly growing demand.36 In plan, the factory occupied three sides of a parallelogram with a 140ft long main frontage and a 65ft long return. There were four floors of well-lit and ventilated workshops and the machine tools, most of them of original design, were driven by an engine said to be of 50 horsepower. The factory made the clock movements and undertook the associated gilding, plating and woodwork. There was also a fireproof room for storing numerous dies used in the labour-saving methods masterminded by Edward Davies, who was said in The Horological Journal’s article on the move to Erdington to be the ‘clever mechanical head of the company’. John Fisher was cited as being BUCC’s Secretary and a ‘business-man of conspicuous ability’. The factory was designed by the architect Mr T.W.F. Newton.37 In a discussion reported in The Horological Journal in 1890, John Fisher noted that he had visited factories in America and that some of BUCC’s machines and tools had initially been bought there, but now that it was established it was making its own tools and machines and improving upon them.38

In a subsequent article in The Horological Journal in September 1889, it was reported that the factory made everything except for the printed dials and glass and had a 70 horsepower steam-engine to drive equipment.40 On the ground floor, there was a tool shop equipped with lathes, a good-sized planing machine and other plant necessary for supplying the factory with punches, dies and machines for special purposes and, in another room, there were both hand-operated and powered presses stamping out plates for movements and other brass-work. All of the holes in the plates were punched out simultaneously and then another press was used to punch out superfluous metal, leaving the plates in skeleton form as they appeared in the finished movement. All of the movements’ crossed train wheels were produced by double punching ribbon brass, first by punching the brass strip to form the crossings (spokes) and then punching out the wheel from the ribbon. Although several patterns of clocks were then made, all were reported as having pinions cut from steel as opposed to being drawn (extruded) to improve tolerances and avoid the need for unduly strong springs. On the upper floors of the factory, lighter operations were undertaken, such as cutting escapement wheels and making pallets, which were stamped from flat steel, had faces milled to shape and then had the tips hardened by heating in boiling lead and cooling in oil. The lathes used for finishing arbors and pinions were designed by Edward Davies, made at the factory and operated by girls. Finally, all pinions and other steel parts were polished. The factory also made balance springs for its clocks.

Contrary to the practice of most later factories involved in the industrialized manufacture of clocks, BUCC made, plated and finished the metal cases for its clocks and it was reported in the September 1889 article as preparing to make wooden cases. Unpublished research, however, suggests that they also commissioned or bought in cases by others. The article concluded:

The enterprise of the British United Clock Company is really of national importance, for it has opened a new industry for our workers, and proved that the ability to compete with the foreigner in the manufacture of clocks for the million has not departed from us. This Company has stepped into the breach, and become the leaders who alone were wanting to give us a start and, in common with all Englishmen, we cordially wish them continued and increasing success.

In January 1890, another article was published on a tour of the factory reporting on the history of the firm, the turning shop, the riveting shop, the timing shop, the fitting shop, the woodworking shop, hair spring making and the stock room. It was observed that:

In the Fitting Shop, one of the principal features of interest is the speedy way in which a movement has all of the parts fitted to it. I watched one young woman who was engaged at this work; she had ranged in front of her all the various pinions, wheels, and other et ceteras, and picking one from each store in front of her she had the whole of the parts fitted together and the movement ready for the examiners in less than no time – a feat which she certainly could not have accomplished had not each part been interchangeable.41

In April 1889 it was reported that BUCC had received a First Award of Merit at the Melbourne Exhibition.42 The following July The Horological Journal published a letter received by BUCC advising that the award was for the:

exhibit of nickel and fancy lever clocks, the points being excellence of manufacture, timekeeping qualities, and cheapness. Professor Ellery, the Government Astronomer Royal, and the other judges, all practical chronometer and watchmakers, were much impressed with the two former points. This award is important, on account of the strong competition and severe test to which the clocks were subjected.43

In July 1889 a review of the Paris Exhibition included the following on BUCC:

It is quite a pleasant relief to now gaze on the miscellaneously made up exposit of the British United Clock Company, of Birmingham and London, manufacturers of eight-day and thirty-hour timepieces and alarums, in plain and fancy cases. In the matter of external decoration it is that the concern achieve most: such manipulation of brass, nickel, copper, silver, etc., cases is not frequently met with. Many of the mountings are especially tasteful. 44

Later company letterheads cited the following awards to BUCC:45

1887:

Award of Merit, Adelaide

1888:

Award of Merit, Sydney, and Highest Honours, Gold Medal, Melbourne

1889:

Highest Honours, Paris

1892:

Kimberley, Gold Medal

Elsewhere, however, BUCC was reported as gaining merely a bronze medal at the Paris Exhibition.46

In May 1890 BUCC announced production of a miniature 30-hour drum timepiece, ‘The Gnat’, ‘which sells at a low price and fairly competes with any similar wares of American production, whilst retaining many of the excellent features shown in former designs of the Birmingham company’.47

In the same month BUCC made a call on 400 partly paid-up shares of £5 per share and £1 per share on 100 shares. By then, the total number of shares issued amounted to 1,054, with some further shares having been issued to Edward Davies, John Fisher and Herbert Fisher.48

Few advertisements for BUCC’s clocks have been found in the horological press but BUCC’s wares were mentioned, albeit very briefly, in advertisements by Greenberg & Co of Birmingham, Whitton & Sons of Clerkenwell and by Grimshaw, Baxter & J.J. Elliott. (For Grimshaw’s advertisement of 1 January 1894, seeChapter 4.)

Fig. 2.5 Advertisement, 1 July 1891.

Fig. 2.6 Advertisement, 1 April 1892.49

In July 1894 BUCC raised additional funds by the issue of a further 1,168 shares at £10 each to William Wood of 8 Great James Street, Bedford Row, Middlesex.50 It is not clear whether this was merely a loan secured against the business, but by July 1895 his shares had been bought by the existing shareholders or their relatives. The total number of shares then stood at 2,268 with the principal shareholders being Edward Davies (1,205 shares), John Fisher (500 shares), Herbert Fisher (425 shares) and William Dudley Short (95 shares).51 The shareholdings then remained stable for some years.52

In January 1897 The Horological Journal reported that BUCC was reaping the rewards of competing with the American machine-made clock trade with John Fisher remarking: ‘We have been exceptionally busy all the year, that so far it has been the best year since our works were started ten years ago, and I am glad to say the prospect for 1897 is very fair if we can only produce enough’. By 1899 BUCC was making clocks in fifty to sixty styles, ranging from a primitive 30-hour drum timepiece to the 8-day lever and pendulum regulated movements in ornate cases of bronze, majolica and marble.53

In January 1901 the directors or managers of BUCC were Edward Davies of Copeley Hill, Birmingham, John and Herbert Fisher of 16 Clerkenwell Close, in the City of London, and William Dudley Short of Colmore Row, Birmingham. Short was recorded as the accountant and the other three as being clockmakers.54 In July 1901 it was reported that Messrs Greenwood & Sons were retiring55 and the following month that the London showroom and offices of BUCC had moved to 94 Aldersgate Street, in the City of London.56 In July 1902 Short resigned from BUCC and no replacement had been appointed by the time of a company return in December.57

In July 1903 the company’s total debts from mortgages and charges that required registration under the Companies Act 1900 amounted to £5,000. It has not been established whether that was new debt or an older debt that only had to be declared as a result of changes in company reporting. The 1903 return was signed by John Fisher, Managing Director; on previous returns he had signed as Secretary.58

On 17 March 1904 Robert Ley Wood, Solicitor, of Lloyds Bank Chambers, Cheltenham, wrote to the Registrar, Companies’ Registration Office, Somerset House, London, registering the voluntary winding up of the company. The company had held Extraordinary General Meetings on 9 February 1904 and 9 March 1904 and passed the resolution ‘That the Company be wound up voluntarily without supervision of the Court and that Mr. F.G. Painter of the firm of Messrs. Tribe, Clarke, Painter and Company, of London, be appointed Liquidator, at such remuneration as may be fixed by the Shareholders’. The resolution was signed by Edward Davies as Chairman of Directors. Thus he had remained Chairman of the company from its foundation in 1885 until its liquidation in 1904.

In April 1905 the liquidator registered an account of receipts and payments in winding up BUCC for the period 10 March 1904 to 9 March 1905. Interestingly, of the total capital of £20,680 of paid-up shares at the commencement of the winding up, £3,000 had been paid up in cash and £17,680 had been issued as paid up other than for cash. The stock, buildings, book debts and plant were estimated to be worth £10,000. Finally, it was recorded that ‘The receivers were carrying on business with a view to the advantageous disposal of the Concern’.59

The liquidator’s accounts schedule all receipts and payments during the receivership and they reveal that amongst the numerous companies trading with BUCC were: Hirst Brothers, Fattorini & Sons, Williamson Ltd, Grimshaw & Baxter, Stockall & Son, Pringle & Sons, Boots Ltd and Gamage Ltd, all of whom paid monies to the liquidator indicating that they were BUCC’s customers rather than suppliers. The liquidator’s accounts record factory wages being paid until August 1904 using BUCC’s monies.

Fattorini & Sons was founded by an Italian immigrant, Antonio Fattorini (1797–1860), who settled in Leeds initially working as a jeweller and hardware dealer at the Central Market and living in the nearby road, Briggate. In time, the business grew and established shops in Harrogate, Skipton and Bradford, which eventually were run as separate concerns by Antonio Fattorini’s sons. The Bradford stem of the business retailed jewellery in Bradford and designed articles for sale over the counter or to special order; until 1915 it sublet manufacture to various firms, mainly in Birmingham.60 One of those firms was BUCC, which made alarm clocks for Fattorini & Sons to the patents owned by the associated Fattorinis.

In August 1908 the liquidator’s statement set out the monies received from shareholders whose shareholdings had not yet been fully paid up. John and Herbert Fisher had to pay a total of £1,750 but once all outstanding debts had been paid by the liquidator, shareholders received a return of 27/- per share, amounting to a total of £3,061/16/-.61 A liquidator’s schedule, of the monies paid to the shareholders upon realization of the assets, noted that by April 1908 the principal shareholders were John and Herbert Fisher, indicating that they had acquired the shareholdings of Edward and Alice Davies.62 The final winding-up meeting of the original BUCC took place in July 1908 and the shareholders present were John Fisher, Herbert Fisher and J.J. White.63

In 1907 the liquidator sold BUCC to new investors, with more than 40 per cent of the new shares owned by Andrew Guthrie Sutherland, an engineer living in Erdington. He had previously been in a partnership trading as The Sutherland Meter Company Limited, which became a limited company in 1902, whereupon he undertook to remain with that company for five years as Director and Manager.64 When in September 1902 the Company Secretary wrote to the Registrar of Companies, the company’s address was given as Thimble Mill Lane, Aston, Birmingham.65

The British United Clock Company (1907) was incorporated on 26 June 1907.66 On 5 July 1907 a Memorandum of Agreement was recorded between the liquidator of BUCC, Andrew Sutherland, and BUCC (1907) for the sale and purchase of the assets of BUCC. In the first part of the agreement, Andrew Sutherland bought the assets from the liquidator for £8,500. The agreement then set out the basis on which BUCC (1907) purchased the assets of BUCC from Andrew Sutherland. Finally, the agreement set out that BUCC (1907) was to pay Andrew Sutherland £14,500 for the purchase, with £9,500 paid in cash and £5,000 by allotment of 5,000 £1 shares deemed to be fully paid. Further research would be required to establish whether Andrew Sutherland made a handsome profit on paper by buying BUCC for £8,500 and selling it on for £14,500, or whether he incurred costs or settled debts that were taken into account.67

In December 1907 it was recorded that the directors were Andrew Sutherland (Engineer), John Sutherland (Engineer), Clarence Skelton (Accountant), Charles Richards (Draper) and William Hardwicke (Haberdasher). All of the shareholders were listed and all of their addresses were within a few miles of the factory at Erdington in Birmingham.68

Further research would be required to establish to what extent BUCC (1907) widened the range of products produced beforehand by BUCC. However, the life of BUCC (1907) was short with the company falling into voluntary liquidation on 3 September 1909, two years after purchase from the liquidator of BUCC and only a few months after the death of Andrew Sutherland, who was about sixty-five years old. The expenditure on wages and salaries was maintained throughout much of September 1909 at £50 to £60 per week, reducing to about £33 by the beginning of December. On 24 December 1909 the weekly wages and salaries amounted to £33/14/1 and, on 31 December, to £7/6/8. Wage and salary payments then remained at a low level for some months, reducing to less than £5 per week, suggesting that the majority of staff were made redundant at Christmas 1909 and that activity thereafter focused on running down the factory and realizing assets. In September 1910 the creditors were repaid in full.69 The factory was eventually sold in June 1912 and a final dividend paid to shareholders, taking the total returned to them by the liquidator to approximately £3,260.70

THE CLOCKS BY BUCC

Fig. 2.7 Clocks by BUCC. P. GOSNELL

In this section, the various mechanical movements manufactured by BUCC are described in the chronological order that unpublished research by Peter Gosnell suggests they are likely to have been introduced. While the movements were normally stamped with BUCC’s name, if the trademark was used, it tended to be on the dial only. The trademark consisted of the letters bucc within a diamond-shaped lozenge.

Edward Davies was responsible for four patents in the UK. The first two concerned BUCC movements and the modification of his brothers’ earlier Ansonia Clock Co. patents. The third patent provided a means of retaining glass in the carriage clock case without it rattling and the fourth patent detailed modifications to a Victor timepiece movement for advertising purposes.

The first clock movement manufactured by BUCC was the one-day ‘Victor’, then the same movement with an alarm, known as the ‘Victor alarm’, and then the 8-day ‘Dot’ timepiece.71 Both Victor models were housed in drums with 3¼in diameter dials and were subsequently advertised in April 1887 as ‘The Speedwell’ with a 4in diameter dial.72 Unpublished research has established that BUCC’s dials were bought in and were initially made of paper and pasted on zinc. Later, however, BUCC offered dials made of celluloid, pressed metal and enamel, and two-piece dials.

THE VICTOR 30-HOUR TIMEPIECE

Fig. 2.8 Victor 30-hour timepiece in a case with fine brass folded filigree decoration. The outer ring of the dial is enamel and the inner pressed metal ring incorporates BUCC’s trademark.

The Victor 30-hour timepiece was first advertised in March 1886.73 The movement had a skeletonized brass front-plate, a skeletonized or solid brass back-plate, solid steel pinions, a lever escapement and a single spring located between the plates. The plates were 65mm high, up to 66mm wide and 1.2mm thick, with those on the timepiece being 17.4mm apart and those on the alarm clock 20mm apart. The movement was back-wound and fixed to the case either via dial feet on the front-plate or via screw fixings through the mid-point of the movement’s pillars. A brief article in September 1886 reported that the clock was made ‘on the American interchangeable system’, was available in eleven different styles and was being made at a rate of 250 to 300 a day.74

Fig. 2.9 Rear view of the Victor timepiece. Rear plate STAMPED MANFD BY THE BRITISH UNITED CLOCK CO LIMITED BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND.

Fig. 2.10 Further view of Victor timepiece movement.

THE DOT 8-DAY TIMEPIECE