Mike Baker began his career in horology when he was sent over to Zimbabwe during WW2 as a fireman for the Royal Air Force. After a fall from a ladder which broke his back, Baker took up a restoration project whilst recuperating. A friend had come to Baker commenting a clock of theirs had stopped working, Baker took up the mantel and set about trying to get it back in working order.
His son Peter recalls:
He decided it needed a clean and dunked it whole into some cleaning fluid because he didn't dare
take it apart in case he couldn't put it back together again. It worked!
This gamble paid off and was the start of his career as an Antiquarian Horologist in Zimbabwe, the next 30 years he worked on building his reputation as the leading clock repairman in the country.
In the 1970s he returned to the United Kingdom and carried on his repair business. This included mainly undertaking private projects from his base in Tonbridge, Kent, however, he was also commissioned to work on the clocks at Salisbury Cathedral and Brighton Pavilion.
Baker’s favourite pastime was researching the history of each clock, who was the manufacturer, past owners, and what was the journey of this timepiece. In the days before the internet, this involved writing letters to manufacturers or tracing the lives and deaths of past owners through archives. His specific interests included longcase clocks, chronometers and navigational instruments.
The Collection of Mike Baker
The collection comprises of twenty-nine lots including clocks, timepieces and scientific instruments. The lots date from the 17th to the 20th century and have estimates from £70 to £4,000. Peter Baker recalls the story behind the highlight piece in his father’s collection (lot 23).
His most proud piece was the astronomical grandfather clock for sale as part of this collection. The story goes that he was called out to repair a clock and whilst there was handed a cardboard box. It was explained to him that a grandfather clock case had disintegrated due to woodworm, and as such had been thrown on the bonfire. He was handed the movement, gears, etc. as “spare parts”. Intending to rescue the rest of the clock’s parts, he climbed onto the bonfire and retrieved the rest of the mechanical items. He managed to restore the clock’s workings and had a new long case built from hardwood. His restoration project was included in a write-up in the Antiquarian Horological Society’s paper (AHS Issue 6 1968). Here he detailed an unusual gear which rotated approximately every 2 years. Responses to the article included a suggestion that it was the gestation period of an elephant, but it was determined that the likely explanation was the rotation of Mars.
Baker's collection included timepieces from a various number of creators including Joseph Knibb, Charles Frodsham, Arsene Margaine, E.J Dent, and Thomas Mercer alongside a Japanese Wadokei lantern clock, Bulle electric clock, a French mystery clock in the manner of Guilmet and a repeater carriage clock made for the Chinese market. Within the collection of instruments, there is a Charles Frodsham marine two-day chronometer, a Cary Gould-type monocular, a Henry Porter sextant, and a Cary 5.5in celestial globe.
Highlights from The Mike Baker Collection
English quarter striking carriage clock by William Taylor of Clerkenwell
Price Realised: £4,875.00
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