Good mahogany RAF single fusee operations room sector clock,...

Estimate

£3,000 - £4,000

Good mahogany RAF single fusee operations room sector clock, the 14" cream dial bearing the RAF insignia and with yellow, red and purple triangle markers, the movement by Stockall Marples & Co stamped on the back plate no. 13320, SM&Co. 1941, AM (pendulum and keys)

**This clock has been owned by the same vendor for over twenty years and was purchased from a British man who was stationed in the operations room at RAF Nicosia in 1954/5 where this clock is believed to have been situated

RAF station Nicosia Cyprus was built in the 1930s. The base closed as an RAF station in 1966 and played a key role during the Suez conflict of the 1950s when several RAF Canberra squadrons were detached from the UK to Nicosia for operations in the Suez canal area. In 1966, RAF Nicosia became Nicosia International Airport and the RAF left the base at around that time

More Information

The movement, although tarnished with age, shows no obvious pivot wear. The back plate has been pressed around the fusee arbour, presumably to take up the end float. The anchor escapement was quite pitted and needed restoring by filing down to remove pits and rebuilding with 0.003" spring steel. The pendulum rod was about 0.75" too short to allow regulation, so about 2" of brass strip was dovetailed and silver soldered to the bottom end of the rod, the pendulum bob is faintly inscribed 'Kitchen'. The suspension, which was too stiff, was also replaced, as was the mainspring - 1.3/8", barrel 2.1/8".