Clock with local history

[clockboy]

Here is a wall clock with some local history. Sometimes a watch/clock arrives with some historical interest. This particular wall clock has the name J M Selfe  Gravesend on the dial which is my home town. 

My wife who is interested in ancestry did some research and found that James Milborne  Selfe owned a Jewellers shop in Gravesend until his death in 1945. Looking at his will he certainly was quite wealthy. Interestingly his farther was a watchmaker.  

The clock is fussee driven and really dirty with more thick oil in it than Saudi Arabia. The issue is, it does not run and is obviously fully wound.But to get a fussee power off the clock movement it will have to run. Perhaps with the escape wheel removed if possible. 

I might have to remove the movement from it’s case and soak some paraffin into the pivots to get it moving.

What fun !!!

 

[watchweasol]

A Nice old clock, well made for sure.

[clockboy]

Yes it is indeed it might have been made by his farther who was a watchmaker.

See below the Paraffin trick is working. It will take all day to wind down but rather wait than braking the fusee chain.

 

[oldhippy]

I always made sure the pivots had plenty of oil in the sinks, removed the pallets and let it run down. I didn't take to long for the movement to run down, you will always find a little pre tension when you release the click on the ratchet. It's a late one going by the shape of the movement pillars. 

[rodabod]

That movement looks very similar to one I used to own (photos attached). It was late Victorian so the movement would have been made by “jobbers” and not by an individual. The same applies but to a lesser extent as you go back further in time, so even Georgian clocks may have had the movement outsourced to a fabricator. 
 

 

[clockboy]

6 hours ago, rodabod said:

That movement looks very similar to one I used to own (photos attached). It was late Victorian so the movement would have been made by “jobbers” and not by an individual. The same applies but to a lesser extent as you go back further in time, so even Georgian clocks may have had the movement outsourced to a fabricator. 
 

 

 

[clockboy]

Thanks yes it certainly looks like a jobbing movement. Very simple but solidly built. I have been busy in the workshop and household jobs today. Might have time to look at it tomorrow.