A genuine, wonderfully patinated, bronze Heliochronometer, dating from around 1910.
In 1906, Gibbs applied for a patent for a type of sundial he had designed, which could accurately determine GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to within a minute, anywhere in the world, at any time of the year, and as a result, the Universal Equinoctial Mean Time Heliochronometer, or Gibbs Heliochronometer for short, was created. Unable to fund the business venture himself, he turned to his employer at the time, William Pilkington, and together they formed Messrs. Pilkington & Gibbs Ltd.  The instruments were simultaneously marketed as garden ornaments, as well as accurate time pieces, thus many found their way on to large country estates.

This almost complete example which still rotates and adjusts, shows both PILKINGTON & GIBBS LTD PRESTON and GJ GIBBS INVENIT (invenit being Latin for ‘designed by’) stamped around its top rim, and is one of approximately 50 examples thought to survive, of the 1000 or so originally manufactured. Many of them were sacrificed for the war effort in 1914, where any ‘spare’ metal was requisitioned by the government for recycling into munitions for the troops in the trenches.

Dimensions: 23cm H x 23cm W x 20cm D