Clocks · Clock
Antique Wm. L. Gilbert & Co. 8-Day Cottage Shelf Clock – Vine & Floral Glass, Winsted, Conn., c. 1870s
- Maker / attribution
- A.C. Gilbert Co. (maker)
- Date
- c. 1870s
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- glass
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 228662758
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 91, ANTIQUES COLLECTIBLES JEWELRY ART & MORE, Heart Felt Antiques & Auction Service, LLC (2026), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique Wm. L. Gilbert & Co. 8-Day Cottage Shelf Clock – Vine & Floral Glass, Winsted, Conn., (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 228662758), this is a clock by A.C. Gilbert Co., dated c. 1870s. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: glass. The record is illustrated with 4 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 — Heart Felt Antiques & Auction Service, LLC
Antique Wm. L. Gilbert & Co. 8-Day Cottage Shelf Clock – Vine & Floral Glass, Winsted, Conn., Circa 1870s, Antique American cottage or “shelf” clock by Wm. L. Gilbert & Co., Winsted, Connecticut, dating to the late 19th century (circa 1875–1885). This example features a classic pointed Gothic-top cottage case with beautifully grained mahogany veneer and ebonized trim accents. The replaced painted metal dial displays bold Roman numerals with original-style spade hands and dual winding arbors for time and strike. The lower door retains its original reverse-painted glass panel with an oval floral bouquet motif framed in gilt vine decoration. Interior retains the original printed maker’s label reading: "Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Co., Winsted, Conn. – Manufacturers of Eight Day and Thirty Hour Clocks." Powered by an 8-day time and strike movement with brass pendulum bob, Strikes on a coil gong. Key-wind mechanism and comes with working key, GOOD WORKING ORDER WHEN TESTED, BUT NOT GUARANTEED AFTER BEING SHIPPED! CONDITION AS SEEN IN PHOTOS PROVIDED - ITEMS UNTESTED UNLESS STATED - ALL ITEMS SOLD AS IS...FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US FOR FURTHER DETAILS
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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.
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