Rare Hamilton Watch Co. Tool / Parts Wood Box w/ 2 Drawers Dent London Frodsham.

I’ve never seen one of these before. Made by the Shur-Fit Crystal Machine Company. The bottom handle is super cool but probably not original. There is a matching knob to the top one included which I found in the drawer. The hole made for the new handle would need to be filled to put the original back in place. The drawer stop for the bottom drawer is missing as shown in one of the pictures, where the drawer goes back further than it should.

If you know badges mean on the front, I’d love to hear. Dent-London & Frodsham-London.

11.5” wide

7.25” tall

13.75” deep (not including handles)

I wiped it off but did not clean it. Some oil would make it pop.

A theory from a fellow eBay member:

Hello, cool box. Dent and Fodsham were well known English watch and chronometer makers going back about 200 years. They had their own businesses and both made significant contributions to the development of chronometers and watches in general. There are clocks still made today that have the Dent name. Re the small brass plates on the box you have. I suspect these are from older chronometers that were worked on and the name plates were removed for some reason and then placed on this box. Look at the Hamilton tag you have on this box and compare it the one on the Model 22 box you have listed for sale. That Hamilton name plate was also used on the Model 21 boxes. During WWII chronometers were in short supply. So the English government was scrounging all the chronometers they could get from the merchant marine ships. Hamilton had a facility in England, near Prescot I think, and it is conceivable that a Dent or a Frodsham chronometer was lent to the Admiralty for the war and was refurbished/certified by a local shop. In this process they sometimes removed the labels and attached a small tag indicating who lent the chronometer. I have seen 200 year old chronometers that had certifications decals well into the 1960's. The Hamilton 21 detent escapement is derived from the work that Dent and others did on his escapement.