Thwaites and Reed, London
for
A round wooden dial wall clock. The eight day timepiece fusee movement has 'A' shaped frames with five turned pillars and is stamped on the front plate for the maker's Thwaites and Reed, along with their serial number, 'T & R 5638' and numbered on the top of the plate '5638'. The 12 inch wooden dial is integral to the case and signed 'B. Lautier, Bath'. With a deep cast Georgian brass bezel, brass hands in the typical Thwaites and Reed style and a mahogany case. The rear of the dial is signed in ink with the instructions to the dial painter: 'Common, Mr Reed will give the name, Lowther, 1815' being the style of lettering, Common, the fact that the maker Thomas Reed will advise of the name to go on the dial, the name of the cabinet maker 'Lowther' who presumably gave these instructions and the year, 1815.
Thwaites and Reed are one of the most well known clock maker's of the late Georgian, early Victorian period. They not only made high quality movements and clocks under their own name but supplied many of the leading maker's of the time, their movements signed with the mark 'T & R' on the frontplate along with the serial number. The firm was originally founded in 1740 as Aynsworth Thwaites, then Aynsworth and John Thwaites, John Thwaites and finally Thwaites and Reed when John Thwaites formed a partnership with the famed horolgist Thomas Reed. The majority of their record books still exist and show that they basically supplied movements to other maker's as well as undertaking repair work and clients included a number of famous names such as Earnshaw, Ellicott and Leroux.
Benjamin Lautier is a well known maker in Bath, Somerset and is recorded as being born in London in 1777 to Hugenot parents, his father John being a goldsmith in Fleet Street, London. Benjamin Lautier started trading as a clockamker circa 1790. He went into partnership with another well known Bath maker, Peter Vigne, in 1800, possibly both arriving from London at the same time with Vigne being Lautier's master, but the partnership was dissolved in 1811 when it is known that Lautier was trading at 2, Bridge Street before moving to number 6. It is known that Thwaites and Reed supplied many clocks to Lautier and that he also undertook repairs and restorations within the workshops including a number of tower and turret clocks. From 1822 until 1845 he wound and maintained the Bath Abbey clock at a typical charge of £11 per annum. Having been instrumental in it's installation. That he worked closely with Thwaites & Reed is shown when he installed the turret clock in Compton Castle, Compton Paucefoot near Bath. The name plate on the flat bed of the movement is signed with Lautier's name and dated 1828 with the work book of Thwaites and Reed showing that they were paid in that year to 'fix turret clock @ 7/6. Compton Castle. 5 days board and 1 lodging £7 17 6. Carriage to Bath and back £2 2.', returning on the 15th of January 1829 when they were paid for a man to work 10 days at the castle. After Lautier died on the 18th of March 1846 his widow Charlotte (whom he married in 1821) carried on the business until it was taken over by George Wadham in 1852.
(For further detail of Lautier see 'Watch and Clock Makers in the City of Bath' by Ian White.)
Benjamin Lautier's Watch Paper
John Lowther is a well known London cabinet maker working in Clerkenwell circa 1832, becoming Lowther & Son from 1839 until 1851. T.N. Lowther is recorded as working as a cabinet maker from before 1822 until 1832 at Red Lion Street and is more tha likely the same man as above moving to Clerkenwell at this date (with the T a mis-representation of J), or a relative whose business John Lowther continued.
Note: This instruction is very similair to another wooden dialled wall clock by Thwaites and Reed, and made for Hawleys, that I had (stock no. 555) written in the same hand and ink with the instructions to Lowther and dated 1816.
Diameter: 16 inches
Price: £4,850.00