Object Description
A Splendid 10-Day Duration Tripod Table Clock
By Thomas Cole
No. 1882/71
“The last of the numbered tripod timepieces so far discovered; finished and completed just before Cole’s death with the series number 71.”
– The Hawkins Pictorial Survey of Cole Clocks, 2025
The circular stepped gilt bronze base, resting on three screw-adjustable hexagonal feet, supports three equidistantly spaced brass circular pillars, from which the clock and its’ mechanism is suspended; the foliate engraved circular base inset with a glazed demi-lune silvered aneroid barometer, calibrated for barometric inches of pressure, also an etched brass framed thermometer, angle set, marked with the Fahrenheit scale and a pendulum beat scale rising to double up as a pendulum holdfast, within a recessed field, finely engraved with foliate scrollwork; housed within a brass bezel is the circular etched and engraved silvered steel dial, with retailer’s cartouche at the top left blank, having the hours marked in Roman numerals, with a subsidiary dial showing the seconds, delineated in Arabic numerals; below, a pendant cartouche incorporating the winding square; the tapered two-tier 10-day movement with eight graduated pillars screwed through the plates, enclosing a Vulliamy-type deadbeat escapement, the lower section containing a spring barrel and a second wheel with a knurled hand setting screw to the backplate; the upper frame has a small plumbline bob at the apex, and a pendant wide bracket to suspend the steel alloy bob pendulum, with a screw adjustment to the spherical silvered brass bob. together with the original setting and winding key. Back of the spring going barrel plate signed ‘THOS COLE / 1882 71 / LONDON.’
English, Circa 1864
According to the Thomas Cole numbering system, only 71 tripod clocks were made, with 27 documented examples positively identified by John Hawkins (latest figures from 2025).