The Art of American Horology & Colle...

New York, Nov 28, 2001

LOT 180

Bliss & Creighton, New York, No. 1482, circa 1845Fine and very rare, two-day marine box chronometer with special patented balance and 56-hour winding indicator.

USD 5,000 - 7,000

Sold: USD 5,750

C. brass bowl with threaded glazed bezel gimbaled in three-body brass-bound mahogany box with glazed panel in the top under hinged lid with fitted catch, flush fitted brass handles and circular ivory plate with the signature, Breguet-type key in a corner plate, key-lock in front, gimbals ring locked by swiveling arm pressing sideways against the base of the cylinder. D. silvered, Roman hour numerals, Arabic seconds on subsidiary dial at 6 o'clock, up/down indicator at 12 o'clock. Blued steel "Spde" hands. M. 80 mm, brass full plate, turned pillars, secured by screws, fusee and chain, Earnshaw spring-detent escapement, Bliss's patented cut-bimetallic compensation balance with wedged temperature adjustment weight and mean time adjustment nuts, freesprung helical balance spring.Signed on the dial and the box. The box is fitted with a label from Cornelius Knudsen, "By Appointment to the Court of Denmark", who overhauled the chronometer in July of 1945.Dim. height 18cm, width and depth 17cm


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-14

Good

Damaged
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

John Bliss (1775-1857).One of a handful of prominent American chronometer makers, at 16, Bliss was apprenticed to Benjamin Lord in Rutland, Vermont. After finishing the apprenticeship, he continued working for him until 1814, when he left Lord, who took Goddard in as a partner, and moved to New York. That same year, hoping to take advantage of the many opportunities awaiting in the West, he moved to Ohio, where he entered into a partnership with Francis Cleveland. After a downturn in business, Bliss moved to New Orleas, where his business flourished. Marvin E. Whitney, the foremost authority on American chronometry, writes that his name "became a household word among maritime people." Despite the success of his business in New Orleans, Bliss returned to New York in 1835, where he took in Frederick Creighton as a partner and the two began advertising as chronometer makers.In the beginning Bliss and Creighton bought "roughout chronometer movements" from England and did their own jewelling, escapement, dials and finishing. Soon, however, they began producing their own chronometers, proudly advertising them as American-made. Since chronometer making was an almost unknown art in America. The two established a school for chronometer makers and, in 1841, began publishing "Nautical Almanac and Tidal Tables", a publication continued by Bliss's son until 1909.Bliss and Creighton were not only manufacturers, but inventors as well. In 1845, they patented a double sprung balance and a new compensation balance, which reduced the Middle Temperature Error. (Middle Temperature Error is an error caused by the fact that the change of rate in a timekeeper with a steel-brass bimetallic balance is approximately a linear function of temperature, while the modifications caused by change in elasticity of a balance spring are approximately a quadratic function. Thusit equals zero at only two temperatures, causing secondary error.) The Bliss & Creighton design, found in this chronometer, sought to eliminate the Middle Temperature Error.