Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Eardley Norton, London, c. 1775
- Maker / attribution
- Eardley Norton (maker)
- Date
- c. 1775
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Dimensions
- Height 71 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 16
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 16)
- Catalogue title (original)
- EARDLEY NORTON. A FINE GEORGE III PERIOD MUSICAL TABLE CLOCK (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 16), this is a bracket clock by Eardley Norton, made in London, England, dated c. 1775. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 71 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 superb musical bracket clock by this famous clockmaker. The beautifully proportioned mahogany case has a bell top which is surmounted by a single pineapple finial on a central plinth and has four pineapple finials at each corner. It stands on four brass ogee foliate bracket feet. All four sides of the case have corner caryatids with foliate and floral garlands. The elegant front door is bound with a brass foliate moulding and there are delicately cast inset brass sound frets to the front and the back. On each side there is a brass carrying handle and pull repeat for the music and strike respectively. The whole case is of a rich deeply patinated mahogany. The 8-day triple fusee movement strikes the hours on a single bell and chimes a choice of one of six tunes every hour on eight bells. The break arch brass dial has a large raised enamel dial, foliate brass corner spandrels, central concentric datework and two subsidiary enamel dials for chime/not chime and tune selection. The whole back plate and the brass cocks are most beautifully engraved with flowers and foliage and the maker’s name is engraved within a central cartouche behind the lenticular bob pendulum hold fast. Date : circa 1775 Height : 28 in (71 cm) with finial Width : 16 in (40.5 cm) Depth : 10 ½ in (26.5 cm) * Eardley Norton who was a most highly esteemed member of the Clockmakers’ Company was working between 1762 and 1794. There are clocks by him in the Royal Collection and many museums worldwide. Signed / Inscribed EARDLEY NORTON LONDON HW5261
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.
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