Update: Records show this chronometer being bought by the Admiralty in March of 1905 at a cost of £48. On 8th of August that year it was then placed on HMS Venerable, a pre-Dreadnought battleship, where it saw service for four years. After being returned to Johannsen in January of 1915 it was placed on the HMS Barham, newly built by the John Brown shipyard in Glasgow the previous year. During this partnership both saw service at the Battle of Jutland. HMS Barham was famously sunk by U-Boat U-331 in November 1941 whilst on duty in the Mediterranean, the chronometer having been removed in 1920.
This chronometer also saw service on-land being used by H.M. Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope in 1953.
To see the ledgers click here: Ledgers & Repair Digest
A mahogany boxed two-day chronometer by this fine and highly regarded maker. The four-inch silvered dial is engraved 'A. Johannsen & Co, 149 Minories, London. Makers to the Admiralty, The Indian Govt. and Royal Navies of Italy, Spain and Portugal' and numbered '5693', with engraved black Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial, 56 hour 'up-and-down' state of winding dial and engraved with a broad arrow Admiralty mark. The fusee movement has Earnshaw's detent escapement, five-spoke wheel work, spotted plates and is stamped with the Admiralty arrow. The plates are also signed for the maker of the rough movement, Joseph Preston, with the mainspring signed by the spring maker 'Geo Cotton & Sons, July 1902'. The brass gimbal is stamped with a repeat of the serial number.
The brass-bound mahogany box has brass handles inset to the sides and a bone plaque to the front engraved with a repeat of the maker's details.
Originally born in Denmark, Asmus Johannsen & Co (being his cousin C. Lorenzen) is recorded as working at 149 Minories from 1865 until 1925 having originally been at Lower Ashley Rd and then Goswell Road.
He regularly figured in the Greenwich Trials and took the first two places in 1916 and was also successful at the Kew Trials. In 1923 the firm was awarded a prize at the Brequet Centenary Exhibition at Neuchatel, Switzerland.
C.C. Lorenzen was born in 1844 in Shleswig, a Danish territory at the time, and joined his cousin in 1862 later becoming a partner in the business. Their dial engraver was Abbot, who died in 1918.
Johannsen was considered a 'great maker' .
Joseph Preston (born 1829) is recorded as working at 19, Eccleston Street, Prescot, Lancashire from 1854 as a maker of movements for some of the finest chronometer maker's of the time, including Johannsen, Kullberg, Usher & Cole and Mercer. The business moved to 43, St. Helens Road in 1865 and was later continued by Joseph's sons, John & Joseph. Preston not only made movements but also supplied chronometer frames and trains and was considered one of the most versatile maker's of his type.
Details of George Cotton & Sons, maker's of mainsprings, will appear shortly.
Diameter: 7¼ x 7¼ x 7½ inches.
Price: On Application