Description

A scarce signed copy of Gould’s classic book on the marine chronometer, the first monograph on the topic and still considered to be an important source. Very well illustrated, with 39 plates and 85 text figures. The first edition is rare, and we can find no records of signed copies in auction or sale records.

Gould was a lieutenant-commander in the British Royal Navy, and became a well known public intellectual through his work for the BBC, and his interest in cryptozoology and paranormal subjects. He is best known, however, as the restorer of John Harrison’s famous timepieces, and as the historian of horology who did most in the first half of the twentieth century to tell the story of Harrison’s extraoardinary technical achievements.

This copy is inscribed to C.A. Jenkins and dated 2 April 1937. The recipient is almost certainly Commander Charles Jenkins (1901–1999), and we might even conjecture that the book was presented to Jenkins on his promotion to Gould’s rank of lieutenant-commander, which occurred in 1937. Jenkins’ autobiography, Days of a Dogsbody, was published in 1946.

Book details:

Author: Rupert T. Gould, with a foreword by Frank W. Dyson

Title: The Marine Chronometer: Its History and Development.

Publisher: J.D. Potter, London

Date: 1923 (first edition)

Format and condition: pp. [frontis.], [4], xvi, 287, [1], [39 leaves of plates]. Good condition: cloth binding marked and scuffed to top and bottom, with several knocks to the rear cover, some revealing the boards underneath; prelims a little loose from the spine but holding; internally very good throughout, noting only one small area of foxing, affecting the margins of three or so pages.