Clocks · Bracket clock
19th century French gilt spelter and porcelain mantel clock
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 19th century
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- France
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- gilt, porcelain
- Dimensions
- Height 15 in (38 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 42, lot 1187
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1187, Fine Clocks & Related Items, Gardiner Houlgate (22nd October 2026)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Attractive 19th century French gilt spelter and porcelain mantel clock, the 3" circular dial with Roman numerals, the movement with outside countwheel and silk suspension, striking on a bell, the orna (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 42, lot 1187), this is a bracket clock, made in France, dated 19th century. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: gilt, porcelain. Recorded dimensions: Height 15 in (38 cm). The record is illustrated with 3 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate
Attractive 19th century French gilt spelter and porcelain mantel clock, the 3" circular dial with Roman numerals, the movement with outside countwheel and silk suspension, striking on a bell, the ornate case with C-scroll, fruiting vine and foliate ornament, mounted with porcelain flowers, upon a shaped velvet base, on an elongated oval wood base under a glass dome, 15" high (with key and pendulum)
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Bracket, table and spring-driven clocks
Spring-driven clocks freed timekeeping from the hanging weight. The coiled mainspring, documented from the fifteenth century, made portable table clocks possible; to even out its declining force, makers used the fusee, a conical pulley connected to the barrel by a gut line or chain. Renaissance table clocks from Augsburg and Nuremberg — drum-shaped, square or tower-shaped in gilt brass — were luxury scientific objects, often with astronomical dials and alarms.
After the pendulum, English makers developed the bracket clock: a wooden case with a carrying handle, a short pendulum with a verge escapement, and often repeating work to sound the hours on demand at night. Later examples use the anchor escapement. In the nineteenth century, 'table clock' became a broad term for spring clocks of every nationality.
What to look for
- A fusee in the movement (cone-shaped pulley) and the type of line — gut or chain.
- Verge escapement with a short bob pendulum, often with a decoratively engraved backplate.
- Repeat cords or buttons that make the clock strike again on demand.
- Gilt-brass engraved cases and horizontal dials on Renaissance pieces.
- Case shapes: inverted bell, bell top, break-arch, lancet or balloon.
Dating clues
- Drum and tower table clocks: c. 1520–1650.
- Ebony veneered English bracket clocks with verge escapements: c. 1670–1800.
- Engraved backplates were usual on English clocks until c. 1800, then generally plain.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Related records
Clocks · 1750–1800
Bracket clock in metal case with scroll handles and flamed-shaped top signed by Pierre Seignoret, Clockmaket to the the Comte d'Artois
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1756
Mantel clock, France, 1756
Rijksmuseum
Clocks · c. 1764–70
Mantel clock by Jean-André Lepaute, France, c. 1764–70
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clocks · 1760–1860
'Pendule d'alcove' wall clock, gilt-bronze and boulle marquetry, Paris, 1760-1860
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1760
Mantel clock, France, 1760
Rijksmuseum
Clocks · c. 1768–70
Longcase astronomical regulator by Ferdinand Berthoud, France, c. 1768–70
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clocks · c. 1775
Clock by Porcelain plaques by Sèvres Manufactory, France, c. 1775
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clocks · 1770–1775
Longcase clock (régulateur) by Robert Robin, France, 1770–1775
Victoria and Albert Museum, London