Lot 55W
WILLIAM BOND & SON, BOSTON. A FINE AND RARE MAHOGANY TALL CASE REGULATOR, NO. 153Commissioned by the Vermont Central Railroad to establish standard time 1855
14 April 2022, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$8,925 inc. premium
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WILLIAM BOND & SON, BOSTON. A FINE AND RARE MAHOGANY TALL CASE REGULATOR, NO. 153
Commissioned by the Vermont Central Railroad to establish standard time
Date: 1855
Movement: Substantial rectangular plates joined by five screwed pillars, deadbeat escapement with jeweled pallets, four wheel train, maintaining power, steel rod pendulum with cylindrical cannister suspended from iron bracket also supporting movement, numbered 3323 on front plate.
Dial: Silvered, Arabic 60-minute ring enclosing subsidiary 12-hour and 60-seconds dials, signed "Wm. Bond & Sons, Boston / No. 153", blued hands
Case: Arched hood with molded circular bezel above paneled long door, the paneled plinth raised on leveling screw feet
Size: 78 ½ in high
Date: 1855
Movement: Substantial rectangular plates joined by five screwed pillars, deadbeat escapement with jeweled pallets, four wheel train, maintaining power, steel rod pendulum with cylindrical cannister suspended from iron bracket also supporting movement, numbered 3323 on front plate.
Dial: Silvered, Arabic 60-minute ring enclosing subsidiary 12-hour and 60-seconds dials, signed "Wm. Bond & Sons, Boston / No. 153", blued hands
Case: Arched hood with molded circular bezel above paneled long door, the paneled plinth raised on leveling screw feet
Size: 78 ½ in high
Footnotes
Bond No. 153 is one of the first precision timepieces commissioned to standardize railroad timekeeping in the United States. Following a meeting with W. Raymond Lee, superintendent of the Boston and Providence Railroad, on September 7, 1853, the Bonds ordered both longcase regulators and precision watches for railroad use. The first clock was delivered to Lee on January 5, 1855.
The present clock was ordered on September 13, 1853, from Barraud and Lund, London and delivered to the Vermont Central Railroad, Northfield Vermont, June 1, 1855 along with sixteen watches. The clock became the property of the Rutland Railroad in 1896 when the Vermont Central went into receivership. The clock was retired from service in 1957 and acquired by the present owner in 1988.
Literature
Blackwell, Dana. Early Railroad Timekeeping. NAWCC Bulletin, December 1986, pp 459-463
Additional information
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