Instruments · Marine chronometer
Small 19th century French marine chronometer by E. Delépine
- Maker / attribution
- E. Delépine (maker)
- Date
- 19th century
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- France
- Object type
- Marine chronometer
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 41, lot 1047
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1047, Fine Clocks & Related Items, Gardiner Houlgate (21st May 2026)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Fine small 19th century French marine chronometer by E. Delépine, No. 1255, signed silvered 2.5" dial inscribed 'Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes' with Roman numerals, outer minute track, 40-hour p (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 41, lot 1047), this is a marine chronometer by E. Delépine, made in France, dated 19th century. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Instruments collection. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate
Fine small 19th century French marine chronometer by E. Delépine, No. 1255, signed silvered 2.5" dial inscribed 'Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes' with Roman numerals, outer minute track, 40-hour power reserve indicator and a subsidiary seconds dial, brass full plate fusee movement with maintaining power, Earnshaw type detent escapement and a two-arm compensated balance with a helical hairspring and diamond endstone, with a numbered brass case and gimbal mount in a square mahogany three tier case with side brass carry handles, 4.75" (with three keys) ** From the David Read Collection ** With 'The Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes 1851 coin, which was not a circulation coin and was an award medal to celebrate the company's founding or its long-standing service ** Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes - French shipping company, originally founded in 1851 as the Messageries Nationales, which operated routes primarily to the Middle and Far East, including the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and China Sea, later expanding to include the Pacific and South Atlantic
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The longitude problem was solved by the marine chronometer and lunar distance methods; dividing engines made precision scales possible, and observatories set time by transit instruments.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Marine chronometers
A marine chronometer is a precision timekeeper carried at sea to find longitude: the navigator compares local noon, observed with a sextant, with the time at a reference meridian kept by the chronometer. Each hour of difference corresponds to fifteen degrees of longitude. John Harrison proved the method in the 1760s; Pierre Le Roy, Ferdinand Berthoud, John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw then developed the detent escapement and the compensation balance that made chronometers practical to manufacture.
By the nineteenth century London, Liverpool, Le Locle and Glashütte supplied navies and merchant fleets. A typical box chronometer has a spring-detent escapement, a fusee to equalise mainspring torque, a bimetallic compensation balance with a helical balance spring, and is mounted in gimbals inside a wooden box so that it stays level.
What to look for
- Gimbals and a three-tier wooden box with a glazed inner lid.
- A power-reserve ('up and down') indicator on the dial, usually showing 56 hours on two-day instruments.
- Spring-detent escapement and a cylindrical (helical) balance spring visible through the movement.
- Admiralty or navy marks (broad arrow), and rating certificates from observatories.
- The maker's number on the dial and movement; many makers' registers survive, allowing dating.
Dating clues
- Earnshaw-type spring-detent chronometers became standard after about 1800.
- Auxiliary compensation devices on the balance appear from the mid-nineteenth century.
- Quartz and radio time signals ended routine use of mechanical chronometers in the 1970s and 1980s.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Detent escapement
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