Clocks · Bracket clock
Bracket clock by Perigal and Browne, England, 1790–1800
- Maker / attribution
- Perigal and Browne (designed and made by)
- Date
- 1790–1800
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- Veneered in satinwood, with cross-banding of tulipwood, the dial of white enamel with black numerals.
- Dimensions
- Height: 41.9 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.18:1 to :2-1951
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Arthur Penrose Milstead
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.18:1 to :2-1951), this is a bracket clock by Perigal and Browne, made in London, England, dated 1790–1800. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Veneered in satinwood, with cross-banding of tulipwood, the dial of white enamel with black numerals. Recorded dimensions: Height: 41.9 cm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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
Both the shape and the choice of satinwood as a veneer would have been highly fashionable when this clock was made in London in about 1790. The shape refers to the exciting new phenomenon of hot-air balloons. The first manned flight in Britain had taken place close to Edinburgh in 1784 and the shape became popular in chairs and clocks in particular. The light, golden colour of satinwood was also popular and here is added a small plaque showing inlay of the three feathers used as an emblem of the Prince of Wales, whose popularity was extremely high at that time.
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Bracket clock in a balloon-shaped case veneered in satinwood with cross-banding of tulipwood, inlaid with a vesica-shaped panel with the Prince of Wales' feathers. The clock is raised on four globular brass feet. The white enamel dial, with Roman hour numerals and arabic numerals for the five-minute intervals, is painted with the name of the makers, 'Perigal and Browne, London'.
Inscriptions & marks
Perigal and Browne London
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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