Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Baird, London, c. 1790
- Maker / attribution
- Baird (maker)
- Date
- c. 1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 40 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 5179
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (product 5179)
- Catalogue title (original)
- BAIRD. A good George III period mahogany bracket clock. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number Product 5179), this is a bracket clock by Baird, made in London, England, dated c. 1790. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 40 cm. 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
Dealer description — Howard Walwyn
A good George III period mahogany bracket clock of refined proportions by this London maker. The case is constructed of well-figured mahogany and is surmounted by a brass swing handle and four brass acorn finials. The front door is framed by finely cast and gilded foliate sound frets and flanked by arched glazed side panels. The clock stands on four cast brass ogee bracket feet. The 6-inch x 8 ½-inch silvered brass break-arch dial is engraved with Roman numerals and Arabic five minute markers with an inner minute track. The finely pierced steel hands appear to be original and there is a subsidiary Strike/Silent dial in the arch. It is elegantly signed Baird London to the centre, amidst delicate foliate engraving to each corner of the chapter ring. The twin fusee movement has verge escapement and pear shaped pendulum bob, strikes the hours on a bell, with a pull-repeat function via a cord. The backplate is signed Baird London No. 26 , within an outer border of interlocking leaves. Height : 15 ¾ in (40 cm) excl. handle Height : 17 ¼ in (43.8 cm) incl. handle Width : 10 in (25.4 cm) Depth : 7 ½ in (19 cm) * John Baird is recorded to have been working in Strand, London from 1775 before moving to Hatton Garden in 1820. The fact that he numbered his clocks at this date is quite unusual. He is listed on page 34 of Brian Loomes’ Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World: Complete 21 st Century Edition (2006 NAG Press) HW6559
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.
Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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