Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by John Wady, London, c. 1740
- Maker / attribution
- John Wady (maker)
- Date
- c. 1740
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut
- Dimensions
- Height 39 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 530
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 530)
- Catalogue title (original)
- JOHN WADY. A rare small and versatile George II period burr walnut bracket clock. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 530), this is a bracket clock by John Wady, made in London, England, dated c. 1740. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut. Recorded dimensions: Height 39 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 rare small and versatile George II period bracket clock in a bell top case veneered with burr walnut and having cross grain moulding. Standing on moulded block feet, the case is surmounted by a brass carrying handle. The break arch brass dial is mounted with corner spandrels, silvered chapter ring, a silvered alarm disk and two subsidiary dials in the arch for strike/silent and rise and fall regulation. Between the two subsidiary dials is a cartouche signed by the maker John Wady, LONDON . The centre is fully matted with a false pendulum aperture and a second aperture to view the day of the month. The two-train fusee movement has a duration of eight days and includes a quarter repeating mechanism sounded on six bells and a separate bell for the alarm and hours. The alarm is one of several rare features included in the clock. The hour is set from the centre disk on the dial and the alarm wound by a pull cord to the side of the clock. One of the rarest and most desirable features of the clock is the inclusion of a silent verge escapement so enabling the owners to use it in both their living quarter and bedroom. The backplate is nicely engraved in a scroll design. The clock is in a remarkably good state of preservation throughout. Date : circa 1740 Height : 15 ¼ in (39 cm) * John Wady is recorded on page 633 of Britten’s Old Clocks & Watches and Their Makers as working in London circa 1740. HW6506
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:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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