Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Gladman & Williams, London, c. 1765
- Maker / attribution
- Gladman & Williams (maker)
- Date
- c. 1765
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut
- Dimensions
- Height 38.5 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 537
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 537)
- Catalogue title (original)
- GLADMAN & WILLIAMS. A fine small proportioned George III period figured walnut bracket clock. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 537), this is a bracket clock by Gladman & Williams, made in London, England, dated c. 1765. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut. Recorded dimensions: Height 38.5 cm. The record is illustrated with 4 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 small proportioned George III period figured walnut bracket clock with 8-day hour-striking movement and pull quarter-repeat on six bells. The walnut veneered case has an inverted bell top with a brass carrying handle and stands on four brass moulded feet. The break arch door and side windows are bound by brass quadrant mouldings, and there are delicately cast brass foliate sound frets to the front. The 8-day twin fusee movement strikes the hours on a single bell. The 6-inch break-arch dial has a matted brass centre, an inset date aperture above VI and raised gilt foliate corner spandrels. The maker’s signature is engraved on a raised silvered disc above the inset date and there are strike/silent and rise/fall subsidiary dials in the arch. The plain back plate is also inscribed with the makers’ signature. Height : 15 ⅛ in (38.5 cm) excl handle Width : 9 ⅜ in (24 cm) Depth : 6 ¾ in (17 cm) *Gladman & Williams are listed on page 304 of Brian Loomes’ Clockmakers of the World: 21 st Century Edition . They were active in London from 1764 and it is thought that they may have been apprentices of George Graham. HW6136
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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