Christopher Pinchbeck, also called Catarrón (c. 1670 – ) was a

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

clockmaker A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly to ...

and maker of musical

automata An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

. He was born in Clerkenwell, England, but worked in Fleet Street. He is the most famous member of the Pinchbeck family, which took its name from a small village in Lincolnshire.

Career

In the 18th century Pinchbeck invented his eponymous alloy, a cheap substitute for

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. He made an exquisite musical clock, worth about £500, for

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

, and a fine organ for the

Great Mogul The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers sty ...

, valued at £300. His eldest son, also named Christopher (1710–1783) became King's Clockmaker by appointment to

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

: among his timepieces is an important astronomical clock made for the King, now in Buckingham Palace. A number of clocks and watches made by both Christopher Pinchbecks still exist. Nowadays the term 'Pinchbeck Watch' may mean a watch made by Christopher senior or junior, a watch made by another maker and housed in a Pinchbeck case, or a watch made by Harold Pinchbeck, the 21st-century family watchmaking business in England. He died in 1732, at the age of 62.

Idiomatic use

The term ''pinchbeck'' has entered the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

to signify the alloy Pinchbeck created. Because the alloy could be used to replace gold, the word is also used to signify something less than genuine; a counterfeit; a fake; a sham or fraud."Pinchbeck"
at Dictionary.com.

Notes

References

Pinchbeck family
by Rita Shenton.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

(subscription or UK public library membership required)
From 'Fleet Street:Introduction (continued)'
Old and New London: Volume 1 (1878), pp 53–69.

Career

Idiomatic use

Notes

References

Further reading