Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by George Clarke
- Maker / attribution
- George Clarke (Made by)
- Date
- 1760–1770
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London (England) (Leadenhall Street)
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- brass, lacquer, gold, metal
- Dimensions
- Height: 52 centimetres Weight: 11.50 kilograms Width: 28 centimetres Depth: 21 centimetres
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 1958,1006.2061
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Bracket clock by George Clarke (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 1958,1006.2061), this is a bracket clock by George Clarke, made in London (England) (Leadenhall Street), dated 1760–1770. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, lacquer, gold, metal. Recorded dimensions: Height: 52 centimetres Weight: 11.50 kilograms Width: 28 centimetres Depth: 21 centimetres. The record is illustrated with 6 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
Description — British Museum
Bracket clock; eight-day three train musical movement playing two tunes on nine bells ("Bright Aurelia" and "Gay Kinde and Airy"); silvered-metal chapter-ring; dial decorated with Turkish numerals; surround with chased ormolu plaques and scrolling foliage and calendar aperture; green lacquer case gilt with scrolling stems and drapery to arched and domed hood with four metal-gilt acorn finials.
Curator's comments — British Museum
The case of this clock is of poor quality and shows evidence of alteration. Inside the door the mask has been altered to fit the present dial shape but that then does not match the door arch. These aspects point to the case being married to the movement and dial. The poor quality of the case and its lack of any detailed mouldings suggests that it was not made by a professional London casemaker.
Inscriptions & marks
inscription; On subsidiary dial, above main dial; English; "Bright Aurelia" and "Gay Kinde and Airy"; Music selection.
Provenance
Previous owner/ex-collection:, Courtenay Adrian Ilbert; Donated by:, Gilbert Edgar; Acquired 1958
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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