Thomas Mercer Ltd. Decorative Objects

An English gilt brass chronometer carriage timepiece with original travelling case, key and bill of sale. The grained gilt tapering case has a folding handle with bevelled glass panel to the top, bevelled glass panels to the sides and a solid rear plate with hand setting function and start/stop lever, signed Thomas Mercer and numbered 1184, dating from 1974 The silvered dial signed Thomas Mercer, with Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial and a state of wind indicator. Blued steel hands. The substantial eight day chain fusee movement with maintaining power, Earnshaw type detent escapement with a free-sprung palladium helical balance spring and heavy bimetallic balance. The original black leather tooled travelling case with lift out front cover is lined in blue velvet and the original safety winding key is stored in the top. Thomas Mercer was founded in 1858, and became one of the greatest chronometer makers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Ernest Shakleton used a Mercer chronometer on the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antartic Expedition, after the Endurance became trapped and destroyed in the pack ice, he heroically journeyed in a whaleboat, the James Caird, to South Georgia to get help for his stranded compatriots. He navigated with a Thomas Mercer chronometer...