PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
SINCE the publication, in 1894, of " Former Clock and Watchmakers and their Work," so many suggestions have reached me from lovers of old clocks and watches that I have been induced to recast the volume. Much additional information of a general character has been embodied in the present book, and details relating to modern construction which appeared before are now omitted.
Technical terms are, I am told, particularly exasperating to people unacquainted with horological phrases, and I have therefore avoided them as much as possible. "The Watch and Clockmakers' Handbook, Dictionary, and Guide " may be consulted by those especially interested in the mechanism of clocks and watches, and who desire more explicit details than I have given here.
Few places can boast of a finer display of eighteenth-century clocks than Windsor Castle. The principal representative specimens I have been enabled to illustrate and describe by special permission of the Queen.
Additions have been made to the list of old makers and some inaccuracies corrected. Several items of information in connection with this list I have obtained from the collection of tradesmen's cards owned by the Hon. Gerald Ponsonby, who allowed me free access to this most interesting record. A perusal of the Banks collection of tradesmen's cards at the British Museum has also elicited particulars not to be met with in ordinary channels. Mr. J. E. Hodgkin, F.S.A., furnished me with a list of the clock and watchmakers in his collection, which proved a useful check in several instances. Mr. C.. H. Read, of the British Museum, has given me every possible help in going over the unsurpassed display of timekeepers in his charge, for the purpose of revising the references thereto. A similar favour in respect of the collection at South Kensington Museum has been accorded by Mr. A. B. Skinner.
I have to acknowledge the kindness of many owners of old timekeepers who permitted me to inspect their treasures. In particular L should mention Mr. Albert Schloss, who has choice examples of every period ; he placed the whole of them in my hands for examination, and of these between sixty and seventy have been selected for illustration.
April, 1899.