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RACK LEVER MOVEMENT   Tobias & Co., c. 1820

Gilt brass full-plate rack-lever movement by M. I. Tobias, Liverpool, circa 1820.   Large diamond endstone and huge ‘Liverpool window’ jewels as far as the third wheel;  polished steel balance;  relief-engraved cock inscribed PATENT on the foot.   Signed Liverpool / 4874 / M. I. TOBIAS & CO.   Original gilt brass dust-cap, numbered within.   White enamel dial with large subsidiary seconds dial;  gold spade-&-pointer hands.   Diameter 47mm.

The rack-lever, devised by Jean Hautefeuille in the 1720s and revived and patented by Peter Litherland of Liverpool in 1791, became something of a fad early in the new century.   Notice the large domed screw-head under the rim of the balance;  this secures one of the two brackets or potences which support the lever pivots and which allow a small measure of adjustment, a feature seen only on rack-levers.

In this side view, A is the broad counterweight at the outer end of the lever, balancing the quadrant at the inner end;  B is one of the pallets;  and C, a right-angled section of stiff brass wire, is part of the stop-work or hack mechanism which originally extended into the path of the escape-wheel teeth and could be pushed between them by the small lever below it, thus stopping the watch.