A large brass and iron clockmaker's uprighting tool Probably Swiss, believed to have formerly been in the workshop of Benjamin Louis Vulliamy, early 19th century The 7.5 inch circular cast brass stage fitted with substantial vertical brass tube for the lower pump centreing arbor with knurled terminal to underside, the top with shaped arched superstructure to carry conforming upper arbor, on three down-curved iron supports with angled pad feet drilled for fixing to a bench, the underside of the stage bearing stamp VULLIAMY, minimum height 43cm (17ins). The current lot is illustrated and described in Crom, Theodore R. Horological Shop Tools 1700-1900 page 614, figure 1203 where the provenance is indicated as passing on the death of Benjamin Louis Vulliamy to Robert Jump, then subsequently (via Jump's widow) to Le Cheminant (a jeweller) before being acquired by the renowned clockmaker Charles Hobson who is believed to added the 'Vulliamy' stamp to the underside of stage. Uprighting tools were mainly used to ensure perpendicular alignment of wheel pivots between clock or watch movement plates during the rebushing process. The basic standard design can be seen in a catalogue published by Berthoud in 1763 (reproduced by Crom on page 100, figure 149), however the detail shaping of the arched superstructure, together with the form of the iron supports would suggest that the current lot is of Swiss manufacture (see Crom page 613, figure 1199 for a later smaller model). From this it is probably appropriate to speculate that Benjamin Louis Vulliamy may have sourced the tool directly from Switzerland, the country of his grandfather's birth.