Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Paulet, England, c. 1710
- Maker / attribution
- Paulet (maker)
- Date
- c. 1710
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- Chased gilt brass and parcel-gilt silver
- Dimensions
- Height: 19.5 cm; Width: 10 cm; Depth: 7.5 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- 420-1869
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number 420-1869), this is a bracket clock by Paulet, made in London, England, dated c. 1710. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Chased gilt brass and parcel-gilt silver. Recorded dimensions: Height: 19.5 cm; Width: 10 cm; Depth: 7.5 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
Summary — Victoria and Albert Museum
Object Type Small clocks such as this example are thought to have been used when travelling. Too large to be used in a carriage, they were designed to be carried from place to place. It has been suggested that they might well have been used on board ship, fitted into a case fixed to the wall of a cabin. People Little is known about the maker who signed himself 'Paulet'. A number of clocks with his signature are recorded and he seems to have had wealthy clients. A clock by him in the Metropolitan Museum, New York bears the royal monogram of Queen Anne (ruled 1702-1714). The distinctly Continental style of his clocks and his French name suggest that he was a Huguenot (French Protestant emigré). Design The clock strikes hours in passing and repeats the hours and quarters. The central dial at the front is used to set the alarm, and the pointer on the top dial is for the calendar. The clock was not an eight-day clock; it had to be wound more frequently. The gilt-brass decoration on the sides of the case owes much to the influence of Daniel Marot (1663-1752), a French architect and printmaker active in The Netherlands, whose designs were very fashionable in England when this clock was made.
Provenance
Made in London, the movement signed 'Paulet London' (active about 1710)
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.
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