The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-04-26
TIMEPIECES.
CURIOUS WATCHES OF THE
PAST AND THE PRESENT
Pawnbrokers and Curiosity Shop
Keepers Get Most of the Old
Watches An Odd Chinese
Piece of Workmanship


Piece of Workmanship
Sometimes we meet people for whom
an old wach has a singular fascination;
but, oddly enough, a man rarely be-
comes seized with the desire to make
collection, as in other hobbies. Collec-
tons exist, but few private individuals
own them. Undoubtedly the finest pri-
vate collection in this country, if not in
the world, is that of Giovanni ?. Moro
SIM, which is kept at his home at Irving
ton, on the Hudson. He has from five
hundred to one thousand. Some OF them
are two centuries old, and many Of them
possess more or less historic value. The
collecting of these timepieces has been
the work of all the leisure time of his
life He has given very high prices for
some waches, particularly those that be-
longed to members of the English and
French nobility. Mr.. Morosini's collec-
ton alone is roundly estimated to be
worth $50, 000
Wstchmakers believe that greater
progress has been made toward perfec-
ton in the manufacture OF timepieces
than in anything else requiring the skill
OF the mechanic, aud that the AIT of to-
day has almost reached its limit for i'm
provement. Most of the curious old
watches of the last csa fury are indiiler-
ent timekeepers, and if used for the pur-
pose need repairs frequently, but this is
not so much due to poor workmanship,
originally, as TO old age. In nearly ali
families tracing back descent for four,
five or more generations their are heir
looms of this sort, but the owners sell
dom carry them, though SOLICITORS, as
rule, that they shall be kept in order.
Others of these relics, in due course Of
time, find their way to the pawnbrokeI
and the curiosity shop, and here it Is
that the man who desires to own one
hunts for his prize. Unlike coins, rare
books and other objects of the collectors
search, watches of the old time have had
no fancy prices put on them, except when
they have been owned by some noted
parsonage or have marked time at some
great event As rule they sell only fol
about the value of the gold and silver in
their composition.
This lack OF a ready market sends
most of the timers to the melting pot.
with the Yatches of to-day,
-. as 'gorkfnen 49,; -.
those of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries are bulky and unwieldy; but
with all the Improvements, it is remark;
able that some of the mechanism OF
eighty years ago has withstood all tests
and is in use to-day. One of the great
difficulties confronting the earlier
watchmakers was the invention of a
compromising balance to allow for the
variations of temperature. After long
study, Earnshaw, eighty years ago, per,
tected this balance, and it Is in use to-
day. In the case of the chronometel
escapement also, it was discarded fol
fifty years, and then again brought into
use.
j. Abner Harper, of Harper & Brothers,
has an old and curious watch of the
last century, but he does not place much
store on it beyond its original cost. He
picked it up in a curiosity shop. 1t is
only little larger than the ordinary
watch of to-day, and was made by Du
Bots ct fill of Paris about one hundred
years ago. It is of gold and opened
faced and is a musical repeater The
dial numbers are Arabic, and, ike many
of the repeaters of to-day, time can be
told in the dark within fifteen minutes
of the hour. Pressure on the stem is fol. |
lowed by a number of strokes indicating
the hour, and, after a pause, one, two OF
three strokes SQUAD for the quarter il
may be. Within two minutes of each
hour the mechanism starts a miniature
music box, which plays melody until
the repeater strikes
Some three months ago Edward
Morgan found a Chinese watch in
Bowery pawnshop. It was made of sill
yer, and he became the owner of it for
IS. 1t is about three inches in diameter
and an inch thick, but differs but little
from the English and French watches of (
fifty years ago. The works are Of .
splendid finish, but very intricate, and it /
is an excellent timekeeper
1t used to be the fashion among the
Did watchmakers to make their repeat
srs with grotesque and fantastic figures
going through the motions of black.
imiths continually beating anvils, and
hey carried these conceits to the extent
If making the warehouses IN singular and
i'd shapes. A revival of this is, in
modified form, going on in Coventry,
England. A matchmaker there has con
eived the idea of manufacturing watches
With the figures Of celebrities holding
he hands on the dials aud thus marking
he time.
Mr.. A. L. Leonard, of Tiffany & Co.,
.nows all about watches, modern and
ntique. cold Watches he said 'are
hicIy of interest to study the changes
hat have taken place since about 1850,
7hen the first pocket clock evoluted
rom the water clock. 1t was first made
With spring and NJ balance wheel, and
was nearly a century before the watch
ad the latter. Then the improvements
4 the chronometer are marvellous from
70 when John Harrison first perfected
/, followed by Berthoud and LeRoy in
rance. The honor of lnventing the
alance wheel is disputed, betweenHooke,
Iuygens and DeHautefeuille. We have
ad any number of old watches here.
nd short time ago we had quite col
,ction, but we disposed of them to the
Institute. l am not ac-
TAINTED with any private collectors of
ID watches, though l presume there
re some. One of the curious things
bout matchmaking is the way some of
lie cd fancies of construction will re-
i've from time to time. When | was
arning the business twenty-five years
20, the grotesque and musical French
atches were very common" - Ne0