Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Dwerrihouse, Berkeley Square, London, c. 1810
- Maker / attribution
- Dwerrihouse (maker)
- Date
- c. 1810
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Berkeley Square, London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Dimensions
- Height 38 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 363
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 363)
- Catalogue title (original)
- DWERRIHOUSE, CARTER & SON. A good late George III period bracket clock by this well-known partnership. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 363), this is a bracket clock by Dwerrihouse, made in Berkeley Square, London, England, dated c. 1810. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 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
Dealer description — Howard Walwyn
A good late George III period bracket clock by this well-known partnership, the well-proportioned brass moulded mahogany case with a gilt brass carrying handle and standing on four brass ogee bracket feet. The arched brass dial has a solid centre, with Roman numerals and double minutes circle, typical of the period. The finely tapered blued steel hands have spade shaped tips. It also has two subsidiary dials for strike/silent and rise/fall in the arch and there is flower and foliate engraving between the dials in place of more usual spandrels. The twin fusee, 8-day duration movement with original anchor escapement sounds the hours on a bell and has pull-hour repeat work. The shaped backplate is engraved with the maker’s signature Dwerrihouse, Carter & Son, London and it has a large spring suspended pendulum with hold fast. Height: 15 in (38 cm) excluding handle Width: 10 in (25.5 cm) Depth: 7 in (17.75 cm) *Dwerrihouse, Carter & Son are recorded on page 235 of Brian Loomes’ W atchmakers and Clockmakers of the World: 21st Century Edition . The partnership worked between circa 1808 and 1815. HW5903
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:Verge escapement
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