I.Fowler Uhren-Restaurator / Curriculum Vitae

Born: 1953, Doncaster, England.

Educated in England: primary school, grammar school, specialised in modern languages; hobby: clocks and horology.

1971 – 1975 University of Manchester, read German Language and Literature, Lingusistics, graduated with B.A.

April 1973 – August 1973: University of Würzburg. September 1973 – August 1974: modern language assistant in Germany at a grammar school in Neunkirchen/Siegerland and at the same time voluntary work with a restorer for antique clocks.

1975 – 1976 Lector at the University of Mannheim (foreign language assistant teaching grammar and translating etc.)

1976 – 1978 training as a clockmaker by Master clockmaker Peter Huber, Norderney, specialising in antique clocks.

1978 returned to Freudenberg / Siegerland (NRW), free lance restorer for antique clocks.

October 1978 – Spring 1983 partnership in a clock and jewellery shop.

1981 – 1982 technical advisor to the foundation of the municipal museum in Freudenberg which exhibits a collection of longcase clocks from the Siegerland. (The museum was designed by Gerd Schäfer, now director of the municipal museum in Iserlohn.) Restoration of the clocks exhibited including the two faced Stahlschmidt clock.

1985 change of residence to Friesenhagen (10 km west of Freudenberg in Rheinland Pfalz). Restoration of clocks in the moated Castle of Crottorf for Hermman Count Hatzfeldt - Wildenburg - Dönhoff.

1990 technical advisor to an exhibition of loncase clocks from the Bergisches Land in the Castle of Homburg (Oberbergischer Kreis, near Gummersbach) under the direction of Helmut Krieg. Collaboration and joint author of the catalogue (v. publications list). Restoration of numerous Bergisch longcase clocks. Now in possession of Herr Krieg’s archive of the clocks registered by him. Restorations of clocks from the Neuwied area, Siegerland and Sauerland.

1990 – 1991 Reconstruction of a Franklin clock movement in the style of Kinzing Neuwied.

1992 collaboration and joint author to the exhibition in Koblenz “Meisterwerke 2000 Jahre Handwerk am Mittelrhein” (Masterpieces of 2000 years of artisan on the Central Rhine) (v. publications list).
1992 onwards free lance restoration work for the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg including publications about the clocks there and guided tours of the collections for fellow members of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie (German Society for Horology).

Restoration work on the clocks in preparation for the exhibition (see below).
1994 – 1995 Reconstruction of a movement for a Louis XV cartel clock case in blue horn veneer. (Case was restored by Mrs. Irmela Breidenstein). For the Castle of Bürresheim, administrated by the state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

1997 – 1998 technical advisor and free lance restorer for the Westphalian Open Air Museum in Detmold in preparation for the exhibition „Der Klang der Stunde, Standuhren in Westfalen“ (The Sound of the Hours, longcase clocks in Westphalia), co author of the catalogue (v. publications list).

1997 - 1998 technical advisor to the exhibition and co author of the catalogue “Uhren aus vier Jahrhunderten” (4 centuries of clocks) for the Augustinermuseum in Freiburg (v. publications list). Restoration work.

1999 – 2000 technical advisor to the exhibition “Jetzt schlägt’s 2000” and author of the clock catalogue “Uhren aus fünf Jahrhunderten” (5 centuries of clocks) (v. publications list) guided tours and associated talks for the DGC.

1999 onwards: restoration work for the administration of the state owned gardens and castles in Hessen, including clocks in Weilburg and Wilhelmshöhe near Kassel (v. publications list).

2000 restoration of the movement and mechanical parts of an important organ clock by Kinzing and Roentgen Neuwied.

2000 – 2003 restoration work on watches from the Helmut Kienzle Collection in Schwenningen on behalf of the German Clock and Watch Museum in Furtwangen.

2000 – 2003 restoration work on the watches in the collection of the Mainfränkischem Museum Würzburg in preparation for the exhibition “Zeit Zeugen”, (Witnesses of Time) 4 centuries of pocket watches. Technical advisor, co-author and photographic work for the catalogue
(v. publications list). Guide tours of and talks on the exhibition on the theme of verge watches for the DGC and the Clock- and Watchmakers Guild of Franconia.

2003 collaboration and co-author of the catalogue “Kinzing & Co, innovative Uhren aus der Provinz (innovative clocks from the province) for the regional museum in Neuwied (v. publications list). Restoration of the precision pendulum clock by Rahskoppf Koblenz with helical gearing illustrated in the catalogue.

Reconstruction of an equation mechanism in the style of Kinzing also illustrated (to be finished).

2005 Restoration of the movements of the "Pompadour" clock in the Neuen Palais in Potsdam in collaboration with Irmela Breidenstein, who restored the case and coordinated the restoration in agreement with Silke Kiesant representing the SPSG (the adminstrating body of the Prussian palaces in Berlin-Brandenburg) (v. publications list)

2005 Restoration of a longcase clock with a musical movement signed Joh. Wilhelm Nolda HoffUhrmacher à Münster for the municipal museum of the city of Münster (Stadtmuseum)

2005 for the city museum in Augsburg technical advise given concerning a clock signed Achenbach & Schmidt Neuwied in a case by David Roentgen which was bought for the Schaezler Palace in Augsburg

2006 restoration of a musical longcase clock signed C.L Bauer fec. Berlin 1769 in a case by Kambly for the SPSG (the administrating body of the Prussian palaces in Berlin-Brandenburg).

2007 restoration of the movement of a musical longcase clock signed Kintzing à Neuwied in a case by Roentgen which was on exhibition in the Kreismuseum (now Roentgen-Museum) in Neuwied. In the exhibition catalogue "Edle Möbel für höchste Kreise, Roentgens Meisterwerke für Europas Höfe" an essay entitled "Kin(t)zing: die Entwicklung einer provinziellen Uhrmacherwerkstatt von Autodidacti zum Hoflieferanten dank Roentgen?" Guided tours of the clocks on exhibition and a lecture on the same subject.

2009-2010 for the re-opening of the exhibition of watches and clocks from the Helmut-Kienzle collection in the Heimatmuseum in Schwenningen in an advisory capacity, responsible also for the descriptions of the objects on desplay and their arrangement in the show cases.

2010 at the annual general meeting of the Antiquarian Horological Society in the Maritime Museum Museum in Greenwich a lecture on German longcase clocks.

2015 Series of four lectures on clockmaking in the Siegerland area of Germany. For the "Vier Fachwerk Museum..." in Freudenberg / Siegerland.

2015/16 Nominated to FBHI of the British Horological Institute.

Ian D. Fowler FBHI

Uhrenrestaurator u. Uhrenhistoriker

Curriculum Vitae