This new series of features will look at what drives a collector to collect and how they go about seeking out items they want for their collections. Here we look back through time to highlight the greatest horological collectors and showcase their particular area and passion for collecting.
Courtenay Adrian Ilbert (1888–1956) was one of the most notable horological collectors of all time. He had the wealth, passion and enthusiasm that enabled him to amass an immense and varied collection. This was at a formative time when many unrecognised horological gems were coming to the market due to a developing appreciation of technical horology and world circumstances.
His collection, known as the Ilbert Collection, included an impressive array of timepieces from the 16th century to his time, featuring some of the rarest and most exquisite watches, clocks, and horological instruments. Professionally, Ilbert was an engineer, and his technical knowledge informed his horological expertise. His engineering insights helped him appreciate the intricate workings of the timepieces he collected and restored. He was an extremely fine craftsman taking infinite patience in the matter of restoration and repair.
Born in Reading, Berkshire during the Victorian era, on the 22nd April 1888, his family background provided him with the stability and resources to pursue an excellent education. From a young age, Ilbert excelled in mathematics, mechanics, and engineering, which laid the foundation for his later career as an engineer and his deep interest in horology. He was educated at Eton and Kings College, Cambridge – where he obtained high honours in mathematics – a prestigious university known for fostering academic excellence, particularly in science and engineering. His education instilled in him a rigorous analytical approach, which would later define his work as an engineer and collector.
After completing his schooling, Ilbert trained as an engineer. He worked primarily in civil engineering, a field that was thriving in the early 20th century due to industrial expansion and infrastructure development. His technical expertise and precision as an engineer mirrored his meticulous approach to horology. Courtenay travelled extensively during this time admiring the classical arts of Italy and Greece, also visiting France and Egypt. It is reminiscent of the Grand Tour when wealthy young English gentlemen journeyed through Europe in search of art, culture and the roots of Western civilisation.
Ilbert’s fascination with timepieces began during his youth, possibly influenced by the engineering marvels of mechanical clocks and watches. By his early 20s, he had started collecting antique clocks and watches, focusing not only on their beauty but also on their historical and technical significance.
Over a period of 50-years, Ilbert built up an astounding collection covering the complete history of horology from about 1500 to 1850, with a single basic type not being represented. He tended to seek out the rare and unique pieces, which were backed up by what must have been the foremost horological library in the world.
He was most generous in lending from his collection to exhibitions at home and abroad, which benefitted the rapidly expanding horological community. In 1954 to recognise his significant contribution to horology he had the unusual honour of being admitted, honoris causa (for the sake of honour) to the freedom, and elected to the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and appointed Curator and Adviser.
This entry from Ilbert’s personal ledger – entry 46K – demonstrates his quest for knowledge with the Earnshaw silver-cased chronometer with spring detent escapement and ‘sugar-tongs’ temperature compensation, which he’s sketched in the entry. This watch has thermal compensation delivered by bimetallic strips mounted on a brass plate with central open boss held with two blued steel screws in the hole in the back plate concentric with the balance axis. Each bimetallic strip carries an index pin at its extremity embracing the last turn of the balance spring. This ensured the watch remained accurate despite temperature changes.
His made purchases from other collectors, including from Percy Webster’s extensive collection. He bought the Elkington Watch Collection, and from F. H. Green clocks including his three-month Tompion longcase and his Flamsteed clock from the Octagon Room at Greenwich Observatory (below), which he has left to the Nation in his will.
This year-going clock with a frame of cast brass plates was made by Thomas Tompion, known as ‘The Father of English Clockmaking’ is fastened by five pillars riveted to back-plate and pinned to front-plate. It has a train of five wheels, upper three supported in sub-frame with its three pillars riveted to back-plate; spring-operated maintaining power (‘bolt-and-shutter’) engaged by pulling small cord when first set, driving weight and 13ft pendulum swinging once every two seconds, were suspended below the movement.
In 1674, a committee which included Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke and the astronomer John Flamsteed, set up by Charles II to investigate claims that variations in magnetic dip could be used to determine the longitude of a particular place. It had proposed to Charles II that longitude could be found by observing the motions of the moon. This led in 1675 to a Royal Warrant enabling an observatory, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, to be built at Greenwich, and for John Flamsteed to be the first Astronomer Royal. This is one of two specially designed regulators that were installed in the Greenwich Observatory.
This is the print Ilbert suggested should be shown next to the clock of the Octagon Room at Greenwich. Francis Place, c.1676 after drawings by Robert Thacker. The print series was commissioned by Sir Jonas Moore, a mathematician and one of the founders of the Royal Observatory.
Through the 1930s, he made important purchases from Wartski, who were handling Russian treasure sent to England for sale by the Bolsheviks. This was a very fertile period for collecting, owing to the numerous watches and quantities of watch movements brought to light by the melting down of old gold cases. One major purchase at that time was a superb astronomical watch, with double dials, probably by Mudge (below).
This gilt-brass full-plate movement with fusee, has bolt-and-shutter maintaining power.
It has a cylinder escapement with a spiral balance-spring with Tompion regulator, silver index disc engraved 5-30. It has a white enamel front dial for hours, minutes and equation of time, with an outer revolving calendar ring; on the back, there is a small white enamel dial for seconds. He was expressly devoted to Mudge’s work.
In the years leading up to WWII, he travelled extensively making many visits to Paris, where he made important acquisitions from the Courtade Collection, together with rare tools from Judge Rebrassier, including one or two tools signed Ferdinand Berthoud. One of these trips resulted in the acquisition of a very fine montre a tact, in a blue enamel and pearl case, by Breguet.
After 30 years of endless work, Ilbert had built up a unique collection covering the whole range of clocks and watches, portraits, prints, watch movements, tools, together with various items which were so admired by all collectors: such as watch-cocks, balances of watches and chronometers, escapement models, sundials, watch keys and watch papers. It was an all-encompassing passion, and he essentially had everything connected with horology.
This bracket clock by eminent maker, Thomas Mudge, was Ilbert’s favourite clock and was previously owned by another civil engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel which added attraction for him. Although it may be an innocent-looking table clock it is perhaps one of the most important clocks made by Thomas Mudge finished in about 1754. The clock, now known as ‘Mudge’s Experimental Lever clock’, contains the first example of his detached lever escapement; a major technological advance for portable timekeepers which, in a modified form, became a standard for watches and is still used today.
As a collector he was most discerning, and rarely made a mistake in what he bought. He loved and treasured the earlier enamels of Blois (below), and watches before 1600. In clocks he was most discriminating, the more so with the English Master clockmakers. He sought out clocks going three, six and twelve months, of which he had examples by Tompion, Quare, William Webster and Berthoud.
This is an early square silver cased verge watch with gilt-brass plates and four baluster pillars. The case dates from the 19th century and was perhaps custom-made for the movement and dial. The arms on the shield are spurious. The original case was almost certainly of polychrome enamel. It must be said that he delighted in buying unusual and complicated clocks and watches, but they didn’t have to be perfect, as the above watch demonstrates.
Times were hard after the war, but Ilbert continued his relentless quest for collecting. It was in the dining room of his London home in Milner Street that the Antiquarian Horological Society (AHS) (link to https://www.ahsoc.org) was founded at a special meeting held on 1st October 1953. The AHS exists to encourage the study of all matters relating to the art and history of time measurement, to foster and disseminate original research, and to encourage the preservation of examples of the horological and allied arts.
Looking back at Ilbert’s love of collecting seems extraordinary, in that he never stopped seeking out the most interesting and fascinating items relating to time and timekeeping. These two examples illustrate this, which can only be described in the best possible sense as an obsession.
This portrait shows an unknown nobleman and his lady, possibly of the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The watch, which is single-handed, is probably earlier, perhaps around 1660.
A clockmaker in his workshop, with a client; a page from an emblem book with an illustration copied from Jan Luyken and engraved verses in Dutch. c.1730-50. Dutch translation: ‘my timepiece, constantly invented, and after properly winded, shows you, be it day or night, the right one for why you wait.’ Clockmaker holds what looks like a Renaissance drum watch as the customer looks over his shoulder. Poem attests to the skill and precision of the clockmaker.
Ilbert’s Lasting Legacy: An Outstanding Collection For The Nation
In 1958 the British Museum was extremely fortunate in acquiring the whole of the collection amassed by Courtenay Adrian Ilbert. When, on his death, the extent of his collection was calculated there were approximately 2,300 watches, 210 clocks and 40 marine chronometers along with scientific instruments and many peripheral items of horological interest including thousands of printed items formed over a period of more than 50 years.
This acquisition was supported by public fundraising efforts led by notable figures, ensuring that his work remained available for public view and study. A new gallery was opened to house these horological exhibits (above).
Courtenay Adrian Ilbert’s collection not only showcased his personal interest but also highlighted the evolution of horology across centuries, making his contributions invaluable to both collectors and scholars in the field. Today, the Ilbert Collection remains a cornerstone of the British Museum’s horological displays.
The next in the series The Greatest Collectors of All Time is now available on Worn & Wound.