Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Carpenter, London, c. 1800
- Maker / attribution
- Carpenter (maker)
- Date
- c. 1800
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 35.5 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 419
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 419)
- Catalogue title (original)
- CARPENTER. A very rare late George III period mahogany regulator type table clock. (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 419), this is a bracket clock by Carpenter, made in London, England, dated c. 1800. 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 35.5 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
Dealer description — Howard Walwyn
A very rare late George III period mahogany regulator type table clock. The 5 inch round enamel dial is laid out as per a table regulator with separate subsidiary dials for the hours and seconds and an outer minute band. The high quality 8-day single fusee timepiece movement has a vertically mounted plain brass six spoke balance wheel with a copper bronze hairspring attached to the balance. The lever escapement is linked via a fork from the pallets to the balance roller above and there is an engraved semi-circular disc with the lever for fast/slow regulation. The rectangular backplate is signed and engraved by the maker William Carpenter St Martin’s Court London and has an unusual engraved border with a double scribe line. The mahogany panelled case houses the enamel dial movement with a flat brass bezel for the convex glazed opening door at the front. It stands on four shallow ogee brass feet and has chased brass carrying handles to each side. The 6 spoke balance wheel escapement is visible through a glass aperture above the dial. The case tapers to the top which is surmounted by a single brass ball finial. Height : 14 in (35.5 cm) excluding finial Width : 7 ½ in (19 cm) Depth : 5 in (12.75 cm) * William Carpenter is recorded as working in St Martin’s Court, London from 1799 until 1812. Although not strictly a regulator, the combination of the attractive mahogany case, the enamel dial and visible vertical balance from the front make this a very interesting and aesthetically pleasing clock. Provenance : An English Collector HW6132
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 · 1740–1760
Longcase clock, English, 1740–1760, japanned wood, John Ellicott
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · c.1750
Long-case clock, English, ca. 1750, by Richard Peyton of Gloucester
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1751
Large wheel engine, signed and dated "John Tipping, Whildon Green, 1751".
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1755
Bracket clock by John Fordham, England, 1755
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clocks · c. 1760
Longcase clock by James Cox, England, c. 1760
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1766
Clock by Alexander Cumming, England, 1766
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1768–1769
Regulator clock by John Shelton, England, 1768–1769
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c. 1775
Longcase clock, England, c. 1775
Victoria and Albert Museum, London