The Antiquarian Horological Society (AHS) is a learned society formed in 1953. It exists to promote the study of clocks and watches and the history of time measurement in all its forms. In order to achieve its aims the AHS holds meetings and publishes a quarterly journal Antiquarian Horology and various books.
The Journal:
Antiquarian Horology is sent quarterly to all members. Printed to the highest standards with many colour pages, each issue contains a variety of articles, the AHS programme, news, letters and high-quality advertising both trade and private. A complete collection of the journals is an invaluable store of horological information, the articles covering diverse subjects including many makers from the famous to obscure.
Meetings:
Meetings usually take the form of lectures,
tours or visits to museums and collections. They provide members with the chance
to encounter a wide range of horological subjects and to forge friendships
and exchange information with like-minded people. Regional Section
meetings are held throughout the UK, in Europe, and in North America.
Two Specialist Groups exist to cater for
those interested in electrical horology and turret clocks.
Publications:
Various publications
of a specialist nature are produced, and many of these works are now regarded
as standard reference works in their own particular field. They have included
books on church, electrical and precision clocks, makers like Barraud,
Dent, Arnold, Windmills and Frodsham and also regional clockmaking. Reprints
of the early rare volumes of Antiquarian Horology are also available to
Members at reduced prices, as well as off-prints of significant articles
in Antiquarian Horology.
The Library:
The Society's Library
is housed in the Guildhall, London, alongside the Clockmaker's Company
library and museum. The extensive reference collection contains a complete run of
the society's journal Antiquarian Horology in addition to many standard
and unique titles gathered over the last fifty years. Members of the AHS
may freely consult the library during normal working hours.
Exhibitions:
Since its inception in 1953 the Antiquarian Horological Society has regularly gathered together clocks in public exhibitions, not just for the benefit of its members but to fulfil one of its founding aims - that of promoting the study of clocks and watches and the history of time measurement in all its forms.
Study Tours:
The Society arranges study tours for its members, usually to countries within Europe, to engender a wider appreciation of their horological history.
Read more about joining the Society
London meetings are held in the main hall of the Swedenborg Society, 20-21, Bloomsbury Way, London. 6.00 pm for a 6.30 pm lecture.
Thursday, 19 November
LECTURE: ‘The Great Clock of Westminster’ by Chris McKay.
Big Ben 150 years old - for more information, please click here.
The Percy Dawson Award is presented for the best article by an author new to the Journal, and for the year 2008 has been awarded to Sebastian Whitestone for his article on 'The Identification and Attribution of Christiaan Huygens' First Pendulum Clock' published in the December 2008 issue of Antiquarian Horology. The Percy Dawson Award, instituted in 1995 to encourage new authors, is open to all non-professional authors.
The Dr. Alan Shenton Award is made for the best article on horology in the period 1840-1940. For the 2008 year it has been awarded to Alun C. Davies for his article 'An Invasion in Time: American Horology and the British Market', published in the June 2008 issue of Antiquarian Horology.
As a charitable body, one of the objectives of the Society is the award of prizes and grants. The Society already supports the clock conservation and restoration courses run at West Dean College with the award of an annual prize.
Additionally, and in view of the diminishing number of young people training as clock and watchmakers, the AHS has joined the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and the Ogden Trust to offer grants to full-time students in need, on the 3-year horology course at City of Birmingham University. The first recipient of the Society's grant is Robert Quinn, a young first-year student from Scotland.
This prize is awarded to the West Dean College Clock Restoration Course student who has successfully completed an exceptional project. This year it was awarded to David Hornsey for his dissertation 'Clock Manufacturing at Soho, Handsworth, Birminghtam, 1760-1934'.
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The AHS has supported the conservation of this fine clock by Ahasuerus Fromanteel which is part of the collection of the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford. The clock, dating from the early 1660s was part of a horological collection bequeathed to the Museum by Mr. Thomas George Barnett who died in 1935. The clock is an important example of the earliest type of English longcase clock incorporating a number of innovative features in both the movement and case design and, although it had been untouched for many years, it was in danger of deterioration. Funds for the conservation work were provided equally by the Antiquarian Horological Society and the fund for the Preservation of Industrial and Scientific Material (PRISM). (Photographs by Richard Rowley, reproduced by courtesy of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University) |
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