Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Daniel Quare & Stephen Horseman, London, c. 1715
- Maker / attribution
- Daniel Quare & Stephen Horseman (maker)
- Date
- c. 1715
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Dimensions
- Height 38 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 224
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 224)
- Catalogue title (original)
- DANIEL QUARE & STEPHEN HORSEMAN, N° 226. A GEORGE I PERIOD QUARTER-REPEATING SPRING TABLE CLOCK BY ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED PARTNERSHIPS OF THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 224), this is a bracket clock by Daniel Quare & Stephen Horseman, made in London, England, dated c. 1715. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 38 cm. The record is illustrated with 2 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 fine and sophisticated George I period quarter-repeating spring table clock by one of the most celebrated partnerships of the early eighteenth century. The elegant ebony veneered case which stands on moulded block feet has matching escutcheons to the door rails and rises to an inverted bell top terminating in a knopped brass carrying handle. The exceptionally high quality movement is of eight day duration with verge escapement and rise/fall regulation to the spring suspended pendulum. The pull quarter repeat mechanism operated from the side of the case strikes the hours on a large bell and the quarters on a smaller bell. The backplate is elaborately engraved with foliage, Ho Ho birds, fruit, angels and serpent heads around the bold signatures Dan: Quare & Ste: Horseman LONDON. The rectangular brass dial is mounted with a silvered chapter ring and subsidiary dials for strike/silent and rise/fall regulation flanking the signatures Daniel Quare and Stephen Horseman, London N° 226 . The finely matted centre includes a false pendulum aperture and an aperture to view the day of the month. The steel hands are finely pierced. Height : 15 in (38 cm) * Daniel Quare , one of the most eminent English clockmakers and worthy contemporary of Thomas Tompion, took Stephen Horseman into partnership around 1709. They continued making clocks and watches for Royalty, the aristocracy and the wealthy until Quare’s death in 1724. The fine quality and proportions of this ebony veneered case has many similarities to the later table clocks with two subsidiary dials by Thomas Tompion. Signed / Inscribed Daniel Quare & Stephen Horseman London N° 226
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance 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:FuseeAnchor (recoil) escapement
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